HiRISE | HiPOD Updates

HiPOD: Week of 12 January 2026

	To Study the Dunes This image was requested to monitor frost deposition, evolution, and sublimation on the dunes in this impact crater. This is part of a study that is designed to capture the onset of seasonal frost, which means images taken near the polar hood have very high incidence angles (angle of the sunlight) that can help to obtain detailed surface measurements.
	The Bench around the Ridge The objective of this observation is to determine the nature of a bench around a ridge. The bench is especially noticeable on the southern side of ridge. This location is to the east of Huygens Crater and is also visible in Context Camera data.
	Down in Savich Crater The CaSSIS instrument on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter acquired a morning image of this area, and HiRISE was asked for a high resolution picture that is usually taken in the Martian afternoon. There are great exposures and diverse colors in this small part of Savich Crater, a 188 kilometer-wide depression near the northeastern edge of the much larger Hellas impact basin. Channels visible here were likely eroded by water flowing into Savich long ago.
	Knobs in Chryse Planitia These formations have been interpreted as mud volcanoes, and a study may help to find out if they bear similarities to other small cones in different regions of Mars, like Ulysses Colles, Hydraotes Colles and on the bottom of Coprates Chasma. Could they have all formed by same processes or not?