In this remarkable movie, the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on Mars Express was used for the first time to image the limb of Mars during most of a complete orbit, showing in good detail the atmosphere seen ‘on edge’ at the apparent border between the planet’s surface and space. <br /> <br />The movie was stitched together from a series of 403 still images acquired by the camera during 13:45–19:09 GMT on 29 April 2016, during orbit 15624. <br /> <br />The spacecraft was commanded to turn as it orbited Mars, which kept the camera pointing at the brightest point on the horizon as Mars Express passed over the southern hemisphere. <br /> <br />An animation showing the planned trajectory over Mars can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK3MTG_L3pk <br /> <br />This image shows the ground track of Mars Express over the surface: <br />http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/04/Mars_Express_ground_track <br /> <br />It is interesting to note that the movie clearly shows gravity-orographic atmospheric waves (http://www.rssd.esa.int/SB/VENUSEXPRESS/docs/atm_waves/Spiga_AWW.pdf) that can be seen in the martian clouds just after the point of closest passage above the surface (seen around seven to nine seconds into the video). <br /> <br />This movie is the first example of the type of imaging that can be done using VMC as a scientific instrument in support of, for example, cloud tracking and dust storm monitoring, which are significant topics in the planetary science community. <br /> <br />Thanks to Alejandro Cardesin at the Mars Express Science Operations Centre, ESAC, Spain, and Simon Wood, Spacecraft Operations Engineer at ESOC, Germany. <br /> <br />Credit: ESA/Mars Express/VMC CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
