Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to CRISM imaging of gullies.

re: CRISM imaging of gullies.

Dickson and Head also suggest HIRISE and CRISM be used to search for gullies forming presently from melting snowpacks:

GULLIES OBSERVED ON FROST-COVERED POLEWARD DUNE FACES IN THE SOUTHERN MID-LATITUDES. OF MARS: POTENTIAL TARGETS FOR HI-RISE AND CRISM.
The 42-nd Vernadsky/Brown Microsymposium on Comparative Planetology, October 10-12, 2005.
J.L. Dickson and J.W. Head, Dept. of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, ****@brown.edu.
"We feel that the association between frost deposits on
pole-facing slopes and the occurrence of channels exclusively on the same slopes is suggestive that these channels have formed from the melting of these frost deposits. Efforts to model the present-day martian climate [6] have predicted that poleward slopes in the mid/high-latitudes of Mars are where gullies would form if they are active, and this location meets those criteria. Frost on poleward slopes at this latitude remains stable on the surface, while frost on equatorward slopes is exposed to greater direct solar insolation, increasing
the temperature enough to induce sublimation. By early
spring, when Figure 1b was obtained, the frost is still stable and is potentially beginning to melt and carve the channel. By the beginning of autumn, when Figure 1c was obtained, the frost has all been removed to reveal the underlying terrain."
...
"Due to resolution constraints, the most important
unanswered questions with regard to these features cannot currently be addressed. The composition of the frost deposits is unknown and the resolutions of TES and OMEGA are insufficient to obtain accurate spectra for the target. CRISM, part of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) instrument payload, will obtain spectra at a spatial resolution as high as 18 m/px, which will be sufficient to determine the composition of the frost. Additionally, any seasonal modification of the channels cannot be observed at MOC resolution. HiRISE, also part of the MRO instrument payload, will obtain visible wavelength images at a resolution as high as 30 cm/px. We feel that seasonal monitoring of this site could provide critical information with regard to frost
deposition in the mid/high-latitudes, channel formation on dune faces, and the stability of liquid water on the present-day martian surface."
http://www.planetary.brown.edu/m42/m42_13.pdf

Bob Clark

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