MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

INTERNET ADVISORY
June 12, 1998

NASA's MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR SPACECRAFT CAPTURES WINTER ON MARS 

        New color images of Mars, as seen by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor
spacecraft, are available on the Internet at http://www.msss.com .

        The first image shows a winter morning with upper atmospheric hazes
in Tharsis, a volcanic region in Mars' northern hemisphere. The image was
taken on June 1, 1998.

        The second image shows detailed cloud patterns in the Tempe
Terra/Kasei Vallis region of the northern hemisphere. These winter cloud
patterns were observed on June 4, 1998.

        Mars Global Surveyor is currently in a fixed 11.5-hour orbit around
Mars, coming as close as 170 kilometers (106 miles) above the surface of
Mars during each looping orbit. The spacecraft will resume aerobraking to
lower and circularize its orbit for the start of the mapping mission in
mid-March 1999.