While spring has sprung into summer in the Southern Hemisphere of Mars, not everywhere is equally free of the seasonal carbon dioxide frost covering that blankets many high latitude locations during the winter.

In this image, the bright material that appears to be filling in cracks in the surface and these craters is seasonal frost, a byproduct of Mars’ major atmospheric component freezing onto the ground to create landscapes below -100 Celsius. Much like snow on Earth persisting in shaded areas like under trees or within narrow valleys, locations on Mars can have built up enough carbon dioxide ice and be shaded enough during the spring to have frost persist into the summer.

While this location isn’t quite the equivalent of being able to go skiing in the summer at some places on Earth, the frost cover highlights about the foot-and-a-half scale texture of this location.

ID: ESP_083343_1050
date: 7 May 2024
altitude: 249 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_083343_1050
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars #science #NASA