Ice Melting in Chasma Boreale during Northern Spring
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Ice Melting in Chasma Boreale during Northern Spring
PSP_007242_2650  Science Theme: Fluvial Processes
This image was suggested by Max Fomitchev's class at Penn State University and is of Chasma Borealis that cuts into the northern polar ice cap.

The class had noted a smooth dark patch in previously acquired images from the Mars Orbiter Camera on Mars Global Surveyor and wondered whether these patches were fog or steam rising from melting ice during Northern spring.

The class analyzed this image and wrote: "Chasma Borealis is the largest crevasse that gives the northern ice cap its mysterious swirling appearance. Surface features visible in this image reveal (an) exceptionally flat surface containing (crescent-shaped) dunes. These dunes are called barchan dunes, with dune tips or horns that point downwind, providing an indicator of dominant wind direction.

"The dark patches are actually areas where the carbon dioxide ice in the seasonal polar cap has started to sublimate (evaporating directly from ice to gas). This cap covers a vast sea of dunes at high northern latitudes."



Written by: Ginny Gulick  (5 November 2008)
 
Acquisition date
11 February 2008

Local Mars time
12:45

Latitude (centered)
84.744°

Longitude (East)
332.885°

Spacecraft altitude
319.2 km (198.4 miles)

Original image scale range
31.9 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~96 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel

Map projection
Polarstereographic

Emission angle
0.3°

Phase angle
72.6°

Solar incidence angle
72°, with the Sun about 18° above the horizon

Solar longitude
30.6°, Northern Spring

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  121°
Sub-solar azimuth:  310.9°
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   (1515MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (659MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (703MB)
non-map           (639MB)

IRB color
map projected  (229MB)
non-map           (512MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (385MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (355MB)

RGB color
non map           (447MB)
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.