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Depth-to-Ice Map of a Southe …
title Depth-to-Ice Map of a Southern Mars Site Near Melea Planum
Description Color coding in this map of a far-southern site on Mars indicates the change in nighttime ground-surface temperature between summer and fall. This site, like most of high-latitude Mars, has water ice mixed with soil near the surface. The ice is probably in a rock-hard frozen layer beneath a few centimeters or inches of looser, dry soil. The amount of temperature change at the surface likely corresponds to how close to the surface the icy material lies. The dense, icy layer retains heat better than the looser soil above it, so where the icy layer is closer to the surface, the surface temperature changes more slowly than where the icy layer is buried deeper. On the map, areas of the surface that cooled more slowly between summer and autumn (interpreted as having the ice closer to the surface) are coded blue and green. Areas that cooled more quickly (interpreted as having more distance to the ice) are coded red and yellow. The depth to the top of the icy layer estimated from these observations suggests that in some areas, but not others, water is being exchanged by diffusion between atmospheric water vapor and subsurface water ice. Differences in what type of material lies above the ice appear to affect the depth to the ice. The area in this image with the greatest seasonal change in surface temperature corresponds to an area of sand dunes. This map and its interpretation are in a May 3, 2007, report in the journal Nature by Joshua Bandfield of Arizona State University, Tempe. The Thermal Emission Imaging System camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter collected the data presented in the map. The site is centered near 67 degrees south latitude, 36.5 degrees east longitude, near a plain named Melea Planum. This site is within the portion of the planet where, in 2002, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer suite of instruments on Mars Odyssey found evidence for water ice lying just below the surface. The information from the Gamma Ray Spectrometer is averaged over patches of ground hundreds of kilometers or miles wide. The information from the Thermal Emission Imaging System allows more than 100-fold higher resolution in mapping variations in the depth to ice. The Thermal Emission Imaging System observed the site in infrared wavelengths during night time, providing surface-temperature information. It did so once on Dec. 27, 2005, during late summer in Mars' southern hemisphere, and again on Jan. 22, 2006, the first day of autumn there. The colors on this map signify relative differences in how much the surface temperature changed between those two observations. Blue indicates the locations with the least change. Red indicates areas with most change. Modeling provides estimates that the range of temperature changes shown in this map corresponds to a range in depth-to-ice of less than 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) to more than 19 centimeters (more than 7.5 inches). The sensitivity of this method for estimating the depth is not good for depths greater than about 20, centimeters (8 inches). The temperature-change data are overlaid on a mosaic of black-and-white, daytime images taken in infrared wavelengths by the same camera, providing information about shapes in the landscape. The 20-kilometer scale bar is 12.4 miles long. Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU
Depth-to-Ice Map of an Arcti …
PIA09335
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys …
Title Depth-to-Ice Map of an Arctic Site on Mars
Original Caption Released with Image Color coding in this map of a far-northern site on Mars indicates the change in nighttime ground-surface temperature between summer and fall. This site, like most of high-latitude Mars, has water ice mixed with soil near the surface. The ice is probably in a rock-hard frozen layer beneath a few centimeters or inches of looser, dry soil. The amount of temperature change at the surface likely corresponds to how close to the surface the icy material lies. The dense, icy layer retains heat better than the looser soil above it, so where the icy layer is closer to the surface, the surface temperature changes more slowly than where the icy layer is buried deeper. On the map, areas of the surface that cooled more slowly between summer and autumn (interpreted as having the ice closer to the surface) are coded blue and green. Areas that cooled more quickly (interpreted as having more distance to the ice) are coded red and yellow. The depth to the top of the icy layer estimated from these observations, as little as 5 centimeters (2 inches), matches modeling of where it would be if Mars has an active cycle of water being exchanged by diffusion between atmospheric water vapor and subsurface water ice. This map and its interpretation are in a May 3, 2007, report in the journal "Nature", by Joshua Bandfield of Arizona State University, Tempe. The Thermal Emission Imaging System camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter collected the data presented in the map. The site is centered near 67.5 degrees north latitude, 132 degrees east longitude, in the Martian arctic plains called Vastitas Borealis. It was formerly a candidate landing site for NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission. This site is within the portion of the planet where, in 2002, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer suite of instruments on Mars Odyssey found evidence for water ice lying just below the surface. The information from the Gamma Ray Spectrometer is averaged over patches of ground hundreds of kilometers or miles wide. The information from the Thermal Emission Imaging System allows more than 100-fold higher resolution in mapping variations in the depth to ice. The Thermal Emission Imaging System observed the site in infrared wavelengths during night time, providing surface-temperature information, once on March 13, 2005, during summer in Mars' northern hemisphere, and again on April 8, 2005, during autumn there. The colors on this map signify relative differences in how much the surface temperature changed between those two observations. Blue indicates the locations with the least change. Red indicates areas with most change. Modeling provides estimates that the range of temperature changes shown in this map corresponds to a range in depth-to-ice of 5 centimeters (2 inches) to more than 18 centimeters (more than 7 inches). The sensitivity of this method for estimating the depth is not good for depths greater than about 20 centimeters (8 inches). The temperature-change data are overlaid on a mosaic of black-and-white, daytime images taken in visible-light wavelengths by the same camera, providing information about shapes in the landscape. The 10-kilometer scale bar is 6.2 miles long. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System was developed by Arizona State University in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Depth-to-Ice Map of a Southe …
PIA09336
Sol (our sun)
Thermal Emission Imaging Sys …
Title Depth-to-Ice Map of a Southern Mars Site Near Melea Planum
Original Caption Released with Image Color coding in this map of a far-southern site on Mars indicates the change in nighttime ground-surface temperature between summer and fall. This site, like most of high-latitude Mars, has water ice mixed with soil near the surface. The ice is probably in a rock-hard frozen layer beneath a few centimeters or inches of looser, dry soil. The amount of temperature change at the surface likely corresponds to how close to the surface the icy material lies. The dense, icy layer retains heat better than the looser soil above it, so where the icy layer is closer to the surface, the surface temperature changes more slowly than where the icy layer is buried deeper. On the map, areas of the surface that cooled more slowly between summer and autumn (interpreted as having the ice closer to the surface) are coded blue and green. Areas that cooled more quickly (interpreted as having more distance to the ice) are coded red and yellow. The depth to the top of the icy layer estimated from these observations suggests that in some areas, but not others, water is being exchanged by diffusion between atmospheric water vapor and subsurface water ice. Differences in what type of material lies above the ice appear to affect the depth to the ice. The area in this image with the greatest seasonal change in surface temperature corresponds to an area of sand dunes. This map and its interpretation are in a May 3, 2007, report in the journal "Nature", by Joshua Bandfield of Arizona State University, Tempe. The Thermal Emission Imaging System camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter collected the data presented in the map. The site is centered near 67 degrees south latitude, 36.5 degrees east longitude, near a plain named Melea Planum. This site is within the portion of the planet where, in 2002, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer suite of instruments on Mars Odyssey found evidence for water ice lying just below the surface. The information from the Gamma Ray Spectrometer is averaged over patches of ground hundreds of kilometers or miles wide. The information from the Thermal Emission Imaging System allows more than 100-fold higher resolution in mapping variations in the depth to ice. The Thermal Emission Imaging System observed the site in infrared wavelengths during night time, providing surface-temperature information. It did so once on Dec. 27, 2005, during late summer in Mars' southern hemisphere, and again on Jan. 22, 2006, the first day of autumn there. The colors on this map signify relative differences in how much the surface temperature changed between those two observations. Blue indicates the locations with the least change. Red indicates areas with most change. Modeling provides estimates that the range of temperature changes shown in this map corresponds to a range in depth-to-ice of less than 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) to more than 19 centimeters (more than 7.5 inches). The sensitivity of this method for estimating the depth is not good for depths greater than about 20 centimeters (8 inches). The temperature-change data are overlaid on a mosaic of black-and-white, daytime images taken in infrared wavelengths by the same camera, providing information about shapes in the landscape. The 20-kilometer scale bar is 12.4 miles long. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Odyssey/NS
PIA03744
Sol (our sun)
Gamma Ray Spectrometer Suite
Title Odyssey/NS
Original Caption Released with Image These two views of Mars were made with data taken by the neutron spectrometer component of NASA's Mars Odyssey gamma ray spectrometer suite. These maps show epithermal neutron flux, which is sensitive to the amount of hydrogen present. The first view was made shortly after the Mars Odyssey science mission began in Feb. 2002, during late summer in the south. The magenta region in the south is due to large amounts of water ice buried a fraction of a meter beneath the surface. The amount of ice is approximately 60 percent by volume. At that time the buried ice in the north was not visible because it was covered with a thick cap of carbon dioxide (dry-ice) frost. The second view was made in November 2002 as Mars enters summer in the north. In this view the ice-rich regions in the north are now visible because the thick carbon dioxide frost has evaporated, and the ice-rich regions in the south are beginning to be obscured by the formation of wintertime seasonal frost. The ice content in the north is even greater than it is in the south, though it is not yet known by how much. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science in Washington, D.C. Investigators at Arizona State University in Tempe, the University of Arizona in Tucson and NASA's Johnson Space Center,Houston, operate the science instruments. The gamma-ray spectrometer was provided by the University of Arizona in collaboration with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, which provided the high-energy neutron detector, and the Los Alamos National Laboratories, New Mexico, which provided the neutron spectrometer. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL.
South Pole Neutron View
PIA03487
Sol (our sun)
Gamma Ray Spectrometer Suite
Title South Pole Neutron View
Original Caption Released with Image NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft provided this view of the south pole of Mars in intermediate-energy, or epithermal, neutrons. Soil enriched in hydrogen is indicated by the deep blue colors on the map, where a low intensity of epithermal neutrons is found. The view shown here of the south pole of Mars comes from measurements made during the first week of Mars Odyssey's mapping, in February 2002, using the neutron spectrometer instrument. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The neutron spectrometer was supplied by the Los Alamos National Laboratory,Los Alamos, N.M., and is one of the instruments in the gamma ray spectrometer instrument suite, which was supplied by the University of Arizona, Tucson. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter. Seehttp://grs.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://grs.lpl.arizona.edu ] for more information. Odyssey mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Global Neutron View
PIA03486
Sol (our sun)
Gamma Ray Spectrometer Suite
Title Global Neutron View
Original Caption Released with Image Observations by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey show a global view of Mars in intermediate-energy, or epithermal, neutrons. Soil enriched in hydrogen is indicated by the deep blue colors on the map, which show a low intensity of epithermal neutrons. The view shown here is a map of measurements made during the first week of mapping by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft in February 2002 using the neutron spectrometer instrument. The central meridian in this projection is zero degrees longitude. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The neutron spectrometer was supplied by the Los Alamos National Laboratory,Los Alamos, N.M., and is one of the instruments in the gamma ray spectrometer instrument suite, which was supplied by the University of Arizona, Tucson. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter. Seehttp://grs.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://grs.lpl.arizona.edu ]for more information. Odyssey mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Global Map, High-Energy Neut …
PIA03489
Sol (our sun)
Gamma Ray Spectrometer Suite
Title Global Map, High-Energy Neutrons
Original Caption Released with Image A high content of hydrogen in Mars' southern polar region is apparent in this global map of high-energy neutrons measured by the high-energy neutron detector on NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The neutrons were measured by the medium detector (in counts per second)during the first week of mapping, in February 2002. Space background neutrons have been subtracted. The pixels are 10 degrees by 10 degrees. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The high-energy neutron detector was supplied by the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and is one of the instruments in the gamma ray spectrometer instrument suite, which was supplied by the University of Arizona, Tucson. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter. Seehttp://grs.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://grs.lpl.arizona.edu ]for more information. Odyssey mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Southern Hemisphere Neutron …
PIA03488
Sol (our sun)
Gamma Ray Spectrometer Suite
Title Southern Hemisphere Neutron Map
Original Caption Released with Image Observations from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey produced this high-energy neutron detector map of martian neutrons in the southern hemisphere. The blue region around the south pole indicates a high content of hydrogen in the upper 2 to 3 meters (7 to 10 feet) of the surface. The neutrons were measured by the medium detector (in counts per second)during the first week of mapping, in February 2002. The space background neutrons have been subtracted. The pixels are 10 by 10 degrees. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The high-energy neutron detector was supplied by the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and is one of the instruments in the gamma ray spectrometer instrument suite, which was supplied by the University of Arizona, Tucson. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter. Seehttp://grs.lpl.arizona.edu [ http://grs.lpl.arizona.edu ] for more information. Odyssey mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
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