Emily Lakdawalla • Jan 27, 2016
Wide views of Mars from Mars Express
Geologist and amateur space image processor Justin Cowart has been taking a dive into Mars Express' High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) data lately and posting some of the results on his Flickr page. The best science from HRSC has been done on their highest-resolution pictures, taken close to the planet, but I really enjoy the wider views that HRSC takes when much farther away from Mars on Mars Express' highly ellptical orbit.
I'm not sure I can recall a prettier picture of the four great volcanoes of Mars' Tharsis region:
![Martian volcanoes](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_1200x2192_crop_center-center_82_line/20160126_23843525423_5fd03caf55_o.jpg 1200w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_768x1403_crop_center-center_60_line/20160126_23843525423_5fd03caf55_o.jpg 768w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_576x1052_crop_center-center_60_line/20160126_23843525423_5fd03caf55_o.jpg 576w)
And here's another broad view across the other major volcanic province of Mars, Elysium:
![Elysium and environs, Mars](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_2400x8000_crop_center-center_82_line/20160126_HRSC-Orbit-D263.jpg 2400w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_1200x4000_crop_center-center_82_line/20160126_HRSC-Orbit-D263.jpg 1200w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_768x2560_crop_center-center_60_line/20160126_HRSC-Orbit-D263.jpg 768w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_576x1920_crop_center-center_60_line/20160126_HRSC-Orbit-D263.jpg 576w)
Here's Mars' north pole, a nice pair to the one that the mission released of the south pole a while back:
![Looking over Mars' north pole](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_1200x3918_crop_center-center_82_line/20160126_HRSC-Orbit-C746-North-Pole-2014-04-07.jpg 1200w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_768x2507_crop_center-center_60_line/20160126_HRSC-Orbit-C746-North-Pole-2014-04-07.jpg 768w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_576x1880_crop_center-center_60_line/20160126_HRSC-Orbit-C746-North-Pole-2014-04-07.jpg 576w)
And finally, one higher-resolution image, containing a beautiful rime of morning frost in the mountains next to Hellas basin.
![Frost in the Hellespontus Montes, Mars](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_1200x4719_crop_center-center_82_line/20160126_HRSC-Orbit-C839-Hellaspontes-Montes-Frost-Large-2014-02-08.jpg 1200w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_768x3020_crop_center-center_60_line/20160126_HRSC-Orbit-C839-Hellaspontes-Montes-Frost-Large-2014-02-08.jpg 768w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_576x2265_crop_center-center_60_line/20160126_HRSC-Orbit-C839-Hellaspontes-Montes-Frost-Large-2014-02-08.jpg 576w)
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