This Hubble Space Telescope image of Mars was taken a few days ago to check on the weather. The pathfinder landing site , on the ancient floodplain Ares Vallis, is just right of center - 500 miles southeast of where Viking 1 landed in 1976. Along with the martian north polar cap , some water ice clouds are visible in both the northern and southern hemisphere . About 600 miles south of the landing site a dust storm can be seen as a brownish ribbon stretching through the the Valles Marineris, a continent sized canyon system. Fortunately, the dust storm is not expected to seriously affect operations at the landing site.
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