North Polar Layered Deposits, Covered by Seasonal Frost
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
North Polar Layered Deposits, Covered by Seasonal Frost
PSP_007493_2650  Science Theme: Polar Geology
This image shows an exposure of the north polar layered deposits (center). The layering visible here might have been formed by recent climate variations on Mars, similar to ice ages on Earth.

While the polar layered deposits are mostly water ice, exposures such as this are typically covered by a layer of red dust, protecting the underlying ice from evaporation during the summer. This dusty layer hides the internal composition of the polar layered deposits from view, but variations in the slopes of the surfaces of the layers are still visible.

The slope of each layer is probably affected by the internal composition, so the topography of exposures like this is of interest to scientists. When this image was taken (northern spring), the surface was mostly covered by seasonal carbon dioxide frost. This white frost layer helps to highlight the surface slopes because the visible brightness variations are mainly caused by topographic variations. Therefore, this image will be useful for photoclinometric, or "shape from shading" analyses that can yield topographic maps limited only by the resolution of the image.


Written by: Ken Herkenhoff  (26 March 2008)
 
Acquisition date
02 March 2008

Local Mars time
12:51

Latitude (centered)
84.820°

Longitude (East)
318.663°

Spacecraft altitude
319.8 km (198.8 miles)

Original image scale range
32.0 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
0.1°

Phase angle
69.3°

Solar incidence angle
69°, with the Sun about 21° above the horizon

Solar longitude
39.5°, Northern Spring

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  121°
Sub-solar azimuth:  312.7°
JPEG
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Merged IRB
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RGB color
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non-map           (319MB)

IRB color
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non-map           (230MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (178MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (168MB)

RGB color
non map           (209MB)
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.