In message , Rod Mollise
writes

NASA's images of Mars are the wrong color

Hi:

If you don't like 'em...download the high-reoslution images and balance them
yourself with Photoshop.

Although the conspiracy nutters are out in force on this one. There is
an element of truth in the claim that the calibration colours are
incorrect.

This is because they are using the near IR filter for the red channel
data and quite a lot of paints (including the test patches on the
lander) are strongly reflective in that band. Near IR is better for
geologists so that is why they have used it in preference to the normal
visual red filter.

Doubtless at some stage they will image in the normal visual red band,
but at present the coloured images do have some colour artefacts. The
saving grace is that there isn't very much blue or green on Mars so the
errors are not too obtrusive (except on the test chart).

The lunatic fringe think it has been done to make LGM invisible ;-)

Regards,
--
Martin Brown