South Pole Residual Cap Features: Swiss Cheese Terrain
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
South Pole Residual Cap Features: Swiss Cheese Terrain
ESP_012271_0940  Science Theme: Climate Change
This image represents a Martian terrain containing “Swiss cheese” features. This terrain is found only within the residue of the Southern Polar cap, which comprises of mostly frozen carbon dioxide and water.

These particular features are flat-floored, circular depressions that are believed to form from different rates in the seasonal changes of the carbon dioxide and water ices. Varying rates in sublimation—when these ices change directly to vapors upon heat and back to deposited solids upon cooling—produces these rimmed depressions from the flat polar ice plane. It is hypothesized that the depression areas are made up of dry ice, carbon dioxide, and the material below consists of the water ice.

This carbon dioxide solid rises and slightly evaporates into the thin atmosphere in the summer while the water layer remains in place. As the south pole cools with seasonal change, the “Swiss cheese” formation is obtained with risen carbon dioxide rimmed depressions and flat water mesas. The Martian North Pole will evaporate all of its carbon dioxide in the summer; however the south pole is colder and this may explain why this terrain is only found in this area.

Some of the circular features in the full image show distinct cusps that point in the direction of the pole. These cusps suggest insolation, a measure of solar radiation that is pushing the movement/formation of these depressions away from the pole. There is also an observed lateral outward growth of the features at the rate of about one-to-three meters a year, indicating to scientists that the depressions must form in a carbon dioxide medium.

Written by: Alexandre Scott/Circe Verba  (27 May 2009)
 
Acquisition date
09 March 2009

Local Mars time
18:41

Latitude (centered)
-85.942°

Longitude (East)
272.903°

Spacecraft altitude
246.6 km (153.3 miles)

Original image scale range
24.7 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~74 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel

Map projection
Polarstereographic

Emission angle
3.4°

Phase angle
70.8°

Solar incidence angle
74°, with the Sun about 16° above the horizon

Solar longitude
224.0°, Northern Autumn

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  135°
Sub-solar azimuth:  33.2°
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   (592MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (252MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (361MB)
non-map           (396MB)

IRB color
map projected  (105MB)
non-map           (310MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (54MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (44MB)

RGB color
non map           (264MB)
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.