JavaScript is required
JPL Logo
Image

Patches of Snow

May 29, 2018
In early Martian summer, at the time NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) acquired this image, the dunes are almost free of their seasonal ice cover.
Context Image
The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 33.3 centimeters (13.1 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 100 centimeters (39.4 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

In early Martian summer, at the time NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) acquired this image, the dunes are almost free of their seasonal ice cover. Only pockets of ice protected in the shade most of the day remain.

The North Pole of Mars is surrounded by a vast sea of sand dunes. In this dune field, the dunes are covered by a seasonal cap of dry ice in the winter.

This is a stereo pair with ESP_053377_2570.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Keep Exploring