CRISM Tracks Unearthly Processes on the Martian South Polar Cap

The Martian south polar seasonal frost cap consists of carbon dioxide ice, whose sublimation in the Martian spring creates a variety of landforms unlike anything in Earth's circumpolar regions. In particular, the part of the cap known as the "cryptic region" is unexpectedly dark and exhibits a variety of unusual dark blotches. Many scientists believe that carbon dioxide gas trapped below the sublimating ice is released in bursts, which carry along dust that gradually darkens the ice, beginning as soon as the Sun rises after the long polar night. On March 12, 2007, a team of scientists from CRISM and the OMEGA investigation on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft released the first results of their complementary tracking of this seasonal phenomenon.

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