Fall Frosting
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Fall Frosting
ESP_033371_1080  Science Theme: Seasonal Processes
Richardson Crater is home to this sea of sand dunes. It was fall in the Southern Hemisphere when this image was acquired and the dunes are frosted with the first bit of carbon dioxide ice condensed from the atmosphere.

As the season turns to winter ice will cover the entire dune field. At this moment however, it is patchy, and in the frost does not yet coat the ground beneath the dunes. The ground under the dunes appears to be cut by spidery troughs termed “araneiform terrain”, carved by carbon dioxide sublimation (turning from solid to gas) in the spring.

Though Mars may appear to be a frozen wonderland it is not frozen in time : the spring will bring lots of activity to this region.

Written by: Candy Hansen (audio by Tre Gibbs)  (16 October 2013)
 
Acquisition date
08 September 2013

Local Mars time
15:02

Latitude (centered)
-72.010°

Longitude (East)
179.405°

Spacecraft altitude
248.6 km (154.5 miles)

Original image scale range
49.8 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~149 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
50 cm/pixel

Map projection
Polarstereographic

Emission angle
2.6°

Phase angle
87.0°

Solar incidence angle
85°, with the Sun about 5° above the horizon

Solar longitude
19.0°, Northern Spring

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  99°
Sub-solar azimuth:  53.5°
JPEG
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IRB color
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Merged IRB
map projected

Merged RGB
map projected

RGB color
non-map projected

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map-projected   (216MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (132MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
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map-projected  (90MB)
non-map           (141MB)

IRB color
map projected  (41MB)
non-map           (122MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (203MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (199MB)

RGB color
non map           (107MB)
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.