Sublimation of Mars' Seasonal Northern Polar Cap

Details Sublimation of Mars' Seasonal Northern Polar Cap Sublimation of Mars' Seasonal Northern Polar Cap

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.1502h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #15.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.409

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Images of the sublimation of Mars’ seasonal polar cap have been collected by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) throughout northern spring. The images show a number of interesting phenomena associated with the dunes in the north polar erg, including slope streaks, circular defrosting features, and evidence for explosive gas release. Time-lapse sequences show how these features evolve through the spring as the seasonal frost disappears.
The vigorous activity associated with the sublimation of the CO2 mobilizes slope streaks, which are observed to lengthen as the season progresses, and promotes mass wasting from the crests of the dunes. Roughly circular features associated with defrosting show alternating bright and dark rings. They are found preferentially at the crests of dunes, and at the interface of the bottom of the dunes with the substrate. The contrast is most pronounced early in the spring and gradually fades as more and more ice is sublimated. This is a surficial albedo effect, not due to underlying surface morphology. The degree of cementation of the substrate below the CO2 ice layer is important and sublimation features which show mobilization of material are found on dunes, not on the surface beneath the dunes.
Some evidence for translucent CO2 ice similar to the seasonal ice found at southern high latitudes has been found at northern sites suggested by Piqueux and Christensen [1]. Dark and bright streaks are observed with orientations determined by the prevailing wind. We have not observed the araneiform terrain with its spider-like channels that is found in many locations in the south polar region.
This work was partially supported by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
[1] Piqueux, S. and P. Christensen, JGR 113 E06005 (2008).

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