Changing Dunes and Ripples in Olympia Undae
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Changing Dunes and Ripples in Olympia Undae
ESP_036099_2615  Science Theme: Aeolian Processes
Olympia Undae is a large field of sand dunes surrounding Mars’ North Polar ice cap. Because of the high latitude of the dunes, they are covered with water and carbon dioxide frost in the winter and are poorly illuminated. They are best viewed in the summer, when features such as ripples on the dunes’ surface can be seen in detail. (Some dunes are probably also covered over by the cap, but we can’t see them directly.)

In this image, we see the dunes in early summer of this year. The dark material is sand that makes up the dunes. Between the dunes, bright bedrock and some lingering patches of frost that have not yet sublimated are visible. Zooming in, we can see small ripples on the dunes’ surface, as well as the bright inter-dune areas. This area has been viewed several times by HiRISE, so we can compare this image to past ones to see if there have been changes.

Here, we compare the new view to one from approximately a Mars years ago (about 2 Earth years), but slightly later in the summer. The most obvious difference between the images is simply the illumination, with the better lighting in the 2012 image showing finer details. Despite these differences, changes in the boundaries of sand and ripple positions are obvious. This shows that winds, perhaps assisted by the sublimation of frost that may loosen sand, are modifying Olympia Undae year-to-year.



Written by: Nathan Bridges (audio: Tre Gibbs)  (30 April 2014)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_036073_2615.
 
Acquisition date
09 April 2014

Local Mars time
13:52

Latitude (centered)
81.633°

Longitude (East)
178.830°

Spacecraft altitude
318.9 km (198.2 miles)

Original image scale range
32.2 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~97 cm across are resolved

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25 cm/pixel

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Polarstereographic

Emission angle
8.0°

Phase angle
66.5°

Solar incidence angle
60°, with the Sun about 30° above the horizon

Solar longitude
113.9°, Northern Summer

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North azimuth:  114°
Sub-solar azimuth:  322.9°
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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.