HiRISE | A Recipe for Martian Scallops (ESP_065907

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

A Recipe for Martian Scallops
ESP_065907_1220 Science Theme: Glacial/Periglacial Processes

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About a third of Mars has water ice just below the dusty surface. Figuring out exactly where is vital for future human explorers. One of the ways scientists do this is to look for landforms that only occur when this buried ice is present. These scallops are one of those diagnostic landforms.

A layer of clean ice lies just below the surface in this image. As the ice ablates away in some spots the surface dust collapses into the hole that’s left. These holes grow into the scallops visible here as more and more ice is lost.

Between the scallops, the ice is still there, ready for some astronaut to come along and dig it up.

Written by: Shane Byrne (narration: Tre Gibbs) (16 March 2021)

Acquisition date
17 August 2020

Local Mars time
15:33

Latitude (centered)
-57.790°

Longitude (East)
57.488°

Spacecraft altitude
248.2 km (154.3 miles)

Original image scale range
24.8 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~75 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
2.0°

Phase angle
48.3°

Solar incidence angle
50°, with the Sun about 40° above the horizon

Solar longitude
260.3°, Northern Autumn

For non-map projected images
North azimuth: 98°
Sub-solar azimuth: 24.4°

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   (525MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (278MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected (187MB)
non-map           (339MB)

IRB color
map projected (65MB)
non-map           (276MB)

Merged IRB
map projected (147MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected (143MB)

RGB color
non map           (270MB)

ANAGLYPHS
Map-projected, reduced-resolution
Full resolution JP2 download
Anaglyph details page

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
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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.