CU-Boulder Researchers To Map Polar Ice On Mars

The research team from the National Snow and Ice Data Center will create a "virtual sensor" by combining data from two instruments currently orbiting the Red Planet on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor satellite, said principal investigator and glaciologist Anne Nolin. The scientists will apply remote-sensing techniques to study the Mars data and help them to both identify the surface composition of Mars' polar ice and plot its perimeters.

In addition to increasing the human understanding of Mars' climate and geophysical properties, the scientists believe the $225,000 project may help explain some of Earth's evolutionary processes, she said.

"Mars is the planet most similar to Earth," Nolin said. "There used to be a lot of liquid water on Mars, but not any longer. We want to know what has caused a planet relatively similar to ours to change so much, and how and why it evolved. Ice provides a long-term archive of climate change."

Although Nolin said distinctions between Mars ice and Earth ice will influence the study, both planets have large polar ice caps that play a role in their hydrological cycles, temperature gradients and atmospheric circulation. The northern ice cap on Mars is mainly fresh water, but the southern ice cap is thought to be almost entirely composed of frozen carbon dioxide.

"Ice on Earth is comparatively close to the melting point, and is therefore the most dynamic type of surface cover due to seasonal changes in ice and snow extent," she says. "The lower temperatures on Mars mean that the poles experience fewer seasonal changes, but still experience changes in frost-covered areas."