South Polar Ice - False Color

Scaled Image

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

About this image

This false color image shows part of the south polar cap. The cap was created over millions of years with deposition of ice and dust during different seasons. This image was collected during spring time. In addition to the layers of ice/dust (bottom of image) the surface of the ice contains dark spots, may of which are elongated. The process forming these spots is still not understood, but likely occurs by geysers of ice and dust that erupt in regions of thin CO2 ice (dry ice). These spots will fade from view as spring changes into summer.

The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image.

Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images. 

Context

Image ID: 
V65107014 (View data in Mars Image Explorer)
-86.2797
98.6099
65107
2016-08-17 17:37
Thu, 2019-12-26
VIS
512 pixels (10 km)
1824 pixels (38 km)
0.020905 km/pixel
0.02102 km/pixel

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