The image was taken on June 1, 1998. These winter cloud patterns were observed on June 4, 1998. The spacecraft will resume aerobraking to lower and circularize its orbit for the start of the mapping mission in mid-March 1999. The image caption are appended below. The images have been geometrically projected to account for optical and motion-induced distortion.
North is up, illumination is from the right.
You may need to adjust the images for the gamma of your monitor to insure proper viewing. This picture shows the giant volcano, Olympus Mons, and one of the Tharsis Montes volcanoes, Ascraeus Mons. Another volcano, Alba Patera, is lurking under the haze and clouds at the top of the image. The orbit will continue to change, about one hour a month, until aerobraking into a circular orbit is complete about seven months from now. These clouds most likely contain water ice.