How Much Water Gets Depositied in the Northern Martian Polar Ice Cap During Summer?

Quantification of summertime water ice deposition on the Martian north polar ice cap

Authors:

Brown et al

Abstract:

We use observations from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) of the north polar cap during late summer for two Martian years, to monitor the complete summer cycle of albedo and water ice grain size in order to place quantitative limits of the amount of water ice deposited in late summer.

We establish here for the first time the complete spring to summer cycle of water ice grain sizes on the north polar cap. The apparent grain sizes grow until Ls=132, when they appear to shrink again, until they are obscured at the end of summer by the north polar hood.

Under the assumption that the shrinking of grain sizes is due to the deposition of find grained ice, we quantify the amount of water ice deposited per Martian boreal summer, and estimate the amount of water ice that must be transported equatorward.

Interestingly, we find that the relative amount of water ice deposited in the north cap during boreal summer (0.7-7 microns) is roughly equivalent to the average amount of water ice deposited on the south polar cap during austral summer (0.6-6 microns).