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The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft has captured a new image of the icy cap at the Martian north pole, complete with bright swathes of ice, dark troughs and depressions, and signs of strong winds.
This HRSC image shows plumes of dust clouds over the ice cap at Mars’ north pole. The landscape here is a rippled mix of color. Dark red and ochre-hued troughs appear to cut through the icy white of the polar cap; these form part of a wider system of depressions that spiral outwards from the very center of the pole. Visible to the left of the frame are a few extended streams of clouds, aligned perpendicularly to a couple of the troughs. These are thought to be caused by small local storms that kick up dust into the Martian atmosphere, eroding scarps and slopes as they do so and slowly changing the appearance of the troughs over time. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.
Like Earth, the Red Planet has seasons. Its polar axis is inclined at around 25 degrees, roughly the same as Earth’s tilt. As such, Mars has the equivalent of our polar nights, without any sunlight in winter, and an Arctic or Antarctic summer, when the Sun does not set for months. Temperatures during the night and day vary just as dramatically on Mars, which affects the ice cover.
The appearance of Mars’ north polar ice cap changes constantly over the course of a year. During the summer half, we see a permanent ice cap, part of which can be seen in this image. It essentially consists of water ice and has a diameter of approximately 1,100 km.
It is estimated to have a volume of 1.6 million km3, which equates to slightly over half the Greenland ice sheet, and is over 2 km thick in places. Almost no impact craters can be seen on the ice, which indicates that the polar cap in its current form is not particularly old.
During the winter half of the year, temperatures at the Martian north pole fall to below minus 125 degrees Celsius, and even in the temperate latitudes of the hemisphere in which it is winter, temperatures can drop to minus 40 degree Celsius or even lower during the day.
At these low temperatures, a considerable proportion of the carbon dioxide from the thin Martian atmosphere condenses into ice close to the poles and precipitates onto the surface. This enlarges the ice cap, forming what is known as the seasonal ice cap, consisting of a one- to two-metre-thick layer of carbon dioxide ice.
This extends to 70 degrees north latitude. As a result, at this time of year the polar cap is often enshrouded in thick carbon dioxide clouds, making it difficult to observe from orbit. When spring sets in, the season layer of carbon dioxide ice quickly sublimates once again, turning directly into gas.
The dark fissures between the gleaming white deposits of water ice are part of an impressive system of valleys that spiral outwards from the center of the polar region in a counterclockwise direction.
In places, these are up to 2 km deep, making them similar in scale to the Grand Canyon, and cut through the layered deposits of the polar cap, which consists of a mixture of ice and dust. The transition between layers of ice and dust documents the development of the Martian climate over the last few millions of years, similarly to the annual rings of a tree.
The evaluation of radar data suggests that wind erosion is the driving force in the formation of spiral-shaped grooves.
According to one theory, the valleys, with their cyclically formed steps, have been made by the impact of katabatic winds on the ice.
Katabatic winds (from the Greek word katabasis, meaning descending) are downslope currents of cold, dense masses of air. They are caused by differences in density and form when, for example, cold, dry air flows from higher-lying surfaces of ice or snow into lower-lying areas with warmer, less dense air.
These are commonly referred to as fall winds, as on Earth they often occur in the afternoon when the temperature differences are at their greatest, below glacier tongues.
In the case of Mars’ polar cap, the air movement is directed radially outwards from the center of the polar region and is also affected by the same Coriolis effect that exists on Earth.
The Coriolis force, named after the French mathematician and engineer Gaspar de Coriolis and caused by the rotation of the planet, acts upon gas masses in the atmosphere.
If air masses flow from temperate latitudes to the poles, they take the momentum of the planetary rotation with them and are deflected to the east.
Even if slower masses of air flow from the pole, they are overtaken by the faster surface of the Earth and likewise deflected. This created spiral patters in atmospheric currents. The winds interact with the surface of Mars, creating the striking topographical spiral pattern of valleys and ridges.
The spectacular cloud formations in this image are small, local dust storms that are oriented perpendicular to the troughs and are particularly prevalent on the slopes of fissures that run towards the equator.
This type of dust movement increases erosion and the regression of the steep slopes.
Both sublimation and erosion due to the katabatic winds appear to be active aeolian processes that play a major role in the long-term alteration of valleys.
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This article is based on text provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
