Did PI Mitrofanov make any comment about this?

As shown in the image here:

Mars probes find more frozen water
http://www.msnbc.com/news/931744.asp?0cv=TA00

the change in the near equatorial region goes from light blue to green. In the accompanying scale chart light blue is right next to green, so it is possible this is a statistical artifact. However, to me the large size of the area involved argues against this.

Stronger evidence comes from this report:

Microsymposium 36, MS063, 2002
SEASONAL VARIATIONS OF SUBSURFACE HYDROGEN AS SEEN BY HIGH ENERGY NEUTRON DETECTOR, MARS ODISSEY.
M. L. Litvak, I. G. Mitrofanov, A.S. Kozyrev, A.B. Sanin, W. Boynton, C. Shinohara, D. Hamara, R. S. Saunders.
http://www.planetary.brown.edu/planetary/documents/Micro_36/Abstracts/063_Litvak_etal.pdf

This shows changes over four seasons for both the north and south hemispheres. Note that in these maps in some locations the changes go from green to *dark* blue which represents a much larger change in the detected hydrogen amounts.
Also to me key evidence to this question is disregarded from the Viking period:

------------------------------------------------------------
NASA SP-441: VIKING ORBITER VIEWS OF MARS
------------------------------------------------------------
- THE ATMOSPHERE -
"Early Morning Surface Fog. The presence of morning fogs in some
crater and channel bottoms is a Viking discovery with possible
implications for the future biological exploration of Mars. These
early morning views of the Memnonia region were taken one-half hour
apart using a violet filter to enhance the contrast of the
condensates. The areas marked by arrows are noticeably brighter in
the later picture. The fogs indicate specific spots where water is
exchanged, probably on a daily cycle, between the surface and the
atmosphere. The surface and lower air layers in this region become
unusually cold at night because of the thermal properties of the
surface. When the surface warms in the morning, it seems that a small
amount of water vapor-estimated to be about one-millionth of a meter
thick if liquefied is driven off; this vapor recondenses in the
atmosphere, which warms more slowly, to form a ground fog of ice
particles. [P17487; 13°S,147° W]"
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-441/ch12.htm

Note that these are near equatorial regions. If this fog does stem from the surface itself then that implies there is some near surface water at these near equatorial locations.

Also important is that Bish et.al. believe the water amounts near the equator are so large that they are best explained by water bearing clays that exchange water with the atmosphere diurnally:

Stability of hydrous minerals on the martian surface.
David L. Bish, J. William Carey, David T. Vaniman and Steve J. Chipera
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mail Stop D469, Los Alamos, NM 87545,
USA
Icarus, Volume 164, Issue 1, July 2003, Pages 96-103.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0019-1035(03)00140-4

WATER-BEARING MINERALS ON MARS: SOURCE OF OBSERVED MID-LATITUDE WATER? D. L.
Bish, J. W. Carey, C. Fialips, Mineralogy & Geochemistry, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mail Stop D469, Los
Alamos, NM 87545, bish@lanl.gov
Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIV (2003) 1786.pdf
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2003/pdf/1786.pdf

CAN HYDROUS MINERALS ACCOUNT FOR THE OBSERVED MID-LATITUDE WATER ON MARS?
D. L. Bish1,2, D. T. Vaniman2, C. Fialips2, J. W. Carey2, W. C. Feldman2, 1Dept. of Geol. Sciences, Indiana University,
Bloomington, IN 47405, bish@indiana.edu; 2Los Alamos National Lab, MS D469, Los Alamos, NM 87545.
Sixth International Conference on Mars (2003) 3066.pdf
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/sixthmars2003/pdf/3066.pdf

PROPERTIES OF POTENTIAL MARTIAN MINERALS UNDER SIMULATED SURFACE CONDITIONS.
D. L. Bish1, D. T. Vaniman1, S. J. Chipera1, and J. W. Carey1, 1Hydrology, Geochemistry, and
Geology, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS D469, Los Alamos, NM 87545 bish@lanl.gov.
Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIII (2002) 1895.pdf
"A better knowledge of Martian hydrous mineralogy,
measured under conditions representative of the
Martian surface, can provide answers to key questions
such as: (1) Can water deposits formed during early
Martian hydrologic cycles survive for time spans on the
order of hundreds of millions of years over which life
would form; (2) What is the difference in water retention
between polar and equatorial regoliths, and how
would these differences influence a search of Mars for
evidence of life; (3) What are the relationships between
permafrost and hydrous solids on Mars; and (4) Can
hydrous-mineral deposits in a brackish regolith provide
a water resource for human exploration and development of Mars?"
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2002/pdf/1895.pdf

And Jakosky et.al. suggest it could actually be ice that persists at these near equatorial sites:

DPS 35th Meeting, 1-6 September 2003
Session 9. Mars Surface I
Oral, Chairs: E. R. Kraal and R. C. Quinn, Wednesday, September 3, 2003, 10:30am-12:00noon, DeAnza III
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[9.03] Mars Low-Latitude Neutron Distribution: Possible Remnant Near-Surface Water Ice
B.M. Jakosky, M.T. Mellon, S. Varnes (Univ. of Colorado), W. Feldman (LANL), W. Boynton (Univ. of Arizona), R.M. Haberle (NASA/Ames)
The Mars Odyssey GRS/NS has provided indications of near-surface water in the equatorial and mid-latitudes, in amounts typically from 5-10 % and ranging up to 15-20 %. Although such high abundances could be present as adsorbed water in clays, other measurements suggest that clays are not present. The spatial pattern of where the water is located is not consistent with a dependence on composition (as would be the case if it were related to clay), topography, present atmospheric water abundance, latitude, or thermophysical properties. The “wave-number two” pattern of water abundance is very reminiscent of something related to an atmospheric phenomenon. We suggest that the high water abundances could be due to transient ground ice that is present in the top meter of the surface. Ice would be stable at tens-of-centimeters depth at these latitudes if the atmospheric water abundance were about twice the present value, much as ice is stable poleward of about 60 degrees latitude for current water abundances. Higher atmospheric water abundances could result under present-day orbital conditions if the south-polar cap were to lose its annual covering of CO2 ice; this would expose an underlying water-ice cap that could supply water to the atmosphere during southern summer. If this hypothesis is correct, then (i) the water ice is unstable today and is in the process of sublimating and diffusing back into the atmosphere, and (ii) the current configuration of perennial CO2 on the south and not the north might not be representative of the present epoch over the last ten thousand years.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.aas.org/publications/baas/v35n4/dps2003/52.htm

In either of these scenarios, this water near the equtorial could become liquid for at least part of the day.

Bob Clark