HiRISE | HiPOD Updates

HiPOD: Week of 2 March 2026

	Those Transversing Dunes This wonderful image was acquired to study basin-driven wind regimes with what the suggester termed an “epic Argyre rim dune field under adiabatic flow.” One can think of adiabatic flow with respect to heat exchange in the atmosphere above the surface of Mars. If you don’t have differences in temperature, you won’t have any wind, or much atmospheric exchange.
	The Upstream Edge of a Crater in Athabasca Valles This observation should provide us a closer look at lava-topography interactions in this area. Athabasca Valles is a young outflow channel system on Mars that may have been carved by catastrophic water floods. Other HiRISE images reveal that Athabasca Valles is now entirely draped by a thin layer of solidified lava, the remnant of a once-swollen river of molten rock.
	The Upper Section of a Channel in Gale Crater This observation features an upper section of a canyon channel system that incising Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. A HiRISE image was requested as the canyon system is analogous to Gediz Vallis also on Mount Sharp, and explored by the Curiosity rover, which may have formed through the past flow of water, rocks, and other materials.
	Mounds in Oxia Colles This landform shows distinctive layering in Context Camera image data, and is similar to other buttes to the far north east which have been observed to have stratigraphy like that of Mawrth Vallis. Understanding the connection between these landforms is vital to our knowledge of their formation.