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Martian Christmas Greetings from the South Pole
Image data, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express mission show an enigmatic landscape in the south polar region of Mars. HRSC is a camera experiment that was developed and is operated by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR).
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Australe Scopuli • Position & 3D view
Australe Scopuli - context map
Image Credit: MOLA Science Team/FU Berlin
Australe Scopuli - 3D perspective 1
Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
AustraleScopuli - 3D perspective 2
Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Australe Scopuli • HRSC images
Australe Scopuli - HRSC color-coded terrain model
Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Australe Scopuli - HRSC color image
Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Australe Scopuli - HRSC anaglyph
Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Martian Christmas Greetings from the South Pole
Not too far away from the location of the images presented in the October release (Cryptic Mars) and still located in the Australe Scopuli region, HRSC made this intriguing observation. In keeping with the season, the 3D views in particular are remotely reminiscent of terrestrial ski resorts. However, skiing is not advised at -125°C.
The layered appearance of the polar layered deposits is clearly recognizable throughout the whole image. This kind of deposits is usually composed of a mixture of CO2 ice and dust. The northern part of the image (right side) shows very faint orange tones, whereas the left side of the image is dominated by numerous dark fan-shaped deposits, oriented in the direction of prevailing winds. The lengths of the fans range from tens of meters to several hundreds of meters. These seasonal polar fans are deposits from jets that ejected dark dust from the subsurface of the seasonal polar CO2 ice cap. Their formation is associated with "spiders” (araneiforms) [see HRSC PR April 2024 – Angustus Labyrinthus] and their activity is governed by solar radiation.
Interestingly, the fans appear in many cases to follow layer boundaries of the polar layered deposits. Presumably, these boundaries represent zones of weakness, where the escaping and dust-laden CO2 jets can break through the seasonal ice cap surface more easily. Another interesting observation is that the dark fans also appear to show higher concentrations at southern flanks of hills and troughs where they might receive more sunlight than at other locations. Some places are very dark in color caused by the dark fan concentration and could therefore even accelerate the sublimation process.
High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC)
The images were acquired by the HRSC (High Resolution Stereo Camera) on 16 June 2022 during Mars Express Orbits 23324. The ground resolution is approximately 15 meters per pixel and the image is centered at about 239° East and 84° South. The color image was created using data from the nadir channel, the field of view which is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, and the color channels of the HRSC. The oblique perspective view was generated from the digital terrain model, the nadir and color channels of HRSC. The anaglyph image, which creates a three-dimensional impression of the landscape when viewed with red/blue or red/green glasses, was derived from the nadir channel and one stereo channel. The color-coded topographic view is based on a digital terrain model (DTM) of the region, from which the topography of the landscape can be derived. The reference body for the HRSC-DTM is a Mars equipotential surface (Areoid).
HRSC is a camera experiment that was developed and is operated by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR). The systematic processing of the camera data took place at the DLR Institute for Planetary Research in Berlin-Adlershof. The working group of Planetary Science and Remote Sensing at Freie Universität Berlin used the data to create the image products shown here.
To download released raw images and DTMs of the region in GIS-ready formats, follow this link to the mapserver
Images: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Copyright Notice:
Where expressly stated, images are licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) licence. The user is allowed to reproduce, distribute, adapt, translate and publicly perform it, without explicit permission, provided that the content is accompanied by an acknowledgement that the source is credited as 'ESA/DLR/FU Berlin', a direct link to the licence text is provided and that it is clearly indicated if changes were made to the original content. Adaptation / translation / derivatives must be distributed under the same licence terms as this publication.
The High Resolution Stereo Camera was developed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and built in collaboration with partners in industry (EADS Astrium, Lewicki Microelectronic GmbH and Jena-Optronik GmbH). The science team, which is headed by Principal Investigator (PI) Dr. Daniela Tirsch, consists of 50 co-investigators from 35 institutions and 11 countries. The camera is operated by the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin-Adlershof.