In the week of 18 September 2017, the low-resolution webcam on ESA’s Mars Express captured some impressive images from between 3000 km to 5000 km altitude.
The image series is being used to calibrate the camera now that it has been promoted to a ‘full’ science instrument (Mars webcam goes pro).
This week, the images provided reasonably good definition for many craters on the surface, including several that are occupied by NASA rovers.
In the composite image above, moving from lower left to upper right, three craters are circled.
The first shows Gale crater, which is occupied by NASA’s Curiosity rover. The second circle, to the right in the middle, shows Gusev Crater, home of the retired Spirit rover. The last circle, at top right of the middle image, also indicates the location of Gale crater and Curiosity.
In addition to studies into Mars’ atmosphere, clouds, dust and atmospheric structures and for tracking variations in the polar ice cap, all of the webcam images are published in a public gallery in Flickr, and are automatically posted via Twitter, sometimes within a couple hours of acquisition at Mars.
More information via ESA’s webcam blog.