The bottom half of PSP_001700_2505 shows a portion of a frost patch on a mound inside a northern hemisphere crater. This is the same frosted mound shown in this image. The frost patch has remained largely stable at least since the Viking era (late 1970s).

The bright frost region is bounded by a dune field on the northeast. Several sizes of dunes are visible. The size classes probably represent generations of dunes that formed under a variety of dominant wind conditions.

The subimage shows the dunes and frost boundary up-close. The frost is largely absent over the dunes, and is more stable over the ground that does not have dune-shaped landforms.

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov. 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. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. The image data were processed using the U.S. Geological Survey’s ISIS3 software.