South Polar Carbon Dioxide Ice Cap
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
South Polar Carbon Dioxide Ice Cap
ESP_014261_0930  Science Theme: Polar Geology
This HiRISE image is of a portion of Mars’ South Polar residual ice cap. Like Earth, Mars has concentrations of water ice at both poles.

Because Mars is so much colder, however, the seasonal ice that gets deposited at high latitudes in the winter and is removed in the spring (generally analogous to winter-time snow on Earth) is actually carbon dioxide ice. Around the south pole there are areas of this carbon dioxide ice that do not disappear every spring, but rather survive winter after winter. This persistent carbon dioxide ice is called the south polar residual cap, and is what we are looking at in this HiRISE image.

Relatively high-standing smooth material is broken up by semi-circular depressions and linear, branching troughs that make a pattern resembling those of your fingerprints. The high-standing areas are thicknesses of several meters of carbon dioxide ice. The depressions and troughs are thought to be caused by the removal of carbon dioxide ice by sublimation (the change of a material from solid directly to gas). HiRISE is observing this carbon dioxide terrain to try to determine how these patterns develop and how fast the depressions and troughs grow.

While the south polar residual cap as a whole is present every year, there are certainly changes taking place within it. With the high resolution of HiRISE, we intend to measure the amount of expansion of the depressions over multiple Mars years. Knowing the amount of carbon dioxide removed can give us an idea of the atmospheric, weather, and climate conditions over the course of a year.

In addition, looking for where carbon dioxide ice might be being deposited on top of this terrain may help us understand if there is any net loss or accumulation of the carbon-dioxide ice over time, which would be a good indicator of whether Mars’ climate is in the process of changing or not.

Written by: Patrick Russell  (18 November 2009)
 
Acquisition date
11 August 2009

Local Mars time
18:09

Latitude (centered)
-86.839°

Longitude (East)
315.664°

Spacecraft altitude
244.5 km (152.0 miles)

Original image scale range
24.5 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~73 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel

Map projection
Polarstereographic

Emission angle
0.0°

Phase angle
74.1°

Solar incidence angle
74°, with the Sun about 16° above the horizon

Solar longitude
319.6°, Northern Winter

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  147°
Sub-solar azimuth:  54.3°
JPEG
Black and white
map projected  non-map

IRB color
map projected  non-map

Merged IRB
map projected

Merged RGB
map projected

RGB color
non-map projected

JP2
Black and white
map-projected   (1039MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (460MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
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map-projected  (564MB)
non-map           (623MB)

IRB color
map projected  (160MB)
non-map           (526MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (241MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (221MB)

RGB color
non map           (450MB)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
Color label
Merged IRB label
Merged RGB label
EDR products
HiView

NB
IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
About color products (PDF)

Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

USAGE POLICY
All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

POSTSCRIPT
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.