Icy Cliffs on Mars
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Icy Cliffs on Mars
ESP_071573_2350  Science Theme: Mass Wasting Processes
This area, on the western edge of Milankovic Crater on Mars, has a thick deposit of sediment that covers a layer rich in ice. The ice is not obvious unless you look in color.

In the red-green-blue images that are close to what the human eye would see, the ice looks bright white, while the surroundings are a rusty red. The ice stands out even more clearly in the infrared-red-blue images where it has a striking bluish-purple tone while the surroundings have a yellowish-grey color.

The ice-rich material is most visible when the cliff is oriented east-west and is shielded from the sun as it arcs through the sky to the south.

Written by: Laszlo Kestay (narration: Tre Gibbs)  (18 January 2022)
 
Acquisition date
02 November 2021

Local Mars time
15:25

Latitude (centered)
54.786°

Longitude (East)
212.027°

Spacecraft altitude
306.8 km (190.7 miles)

Original image scale range
30.8 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~93 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
4.9°

Phase angle
46.2°

Solar incidence angle
51°, with the Sun about 39° above the horizon

Solar longitude
121.4°, Northern Summer

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  96°
Sub-solar azimuth:  345.7°
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   (819MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (467MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (400MB)
non-map           (451MB)

IRB color
map projected  (146MB)
non-map           (288MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (217MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (212MB)

RGB color
non map           (283MB)
BONUS
4K (TIFF)
8K (TIFF)
10K (TIFF)

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.