Finding Martian glaciers from orbit
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image is a great example of the surprises one can find by exploring the archive of the high resolution pictures that Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has produced since it arrived in Mars orbit back in 2006. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken by MRO’s high resolution camera back on May 4, 2017. I only found it because I had picked out a October 24, 2022 high resolution image that covered a different area of this same flow feature just to the north east. In trying to understand that 2022 picture I dug to see other images had been taken around it, and found the earlier 2017 photo that was even more interesting.
Neither however really covered the entire feature, making it difficult to understand its full nature. I therefore searched the archive of MRO’s context camera, which has imaged the entire planet with less resolution but covering a much wider area per picture. The context camera picture below captures the full nature of this feature.
Click for full image.
The photo to the right was taken on December 24, 2012, ten years ago. It shows a spectacular glacier-like flow that has pushed its way through a gap in a mountain ridge. The white box shows the area covered by the high resolution photo above.
Since 2012 scientists have photographed this flow feature multiple times to see if over time they can detect any motion or change. Changes, including sublimation, would suggest the glacier is shrinking. Motion would suggest the glacier is growing. No change suggests a steady-state condition and an inactive glacier. All three would tell us a great deal about the larger Martian climate. At the resolution available online, however, it is impossible to detect any changes, though a much closer look might tell us differently.
The white dot on the overview map to the right indicates location of this flow feature, at the head of Harmakhis Valles, one of several meandering canyons that cut their way downhill into Hellas Basin, the death valley of Mars. All of these valleys sit in the 30 to 55 degree latitude band where many Martian glaciers are found, and all three appear from many images to be each filled for most of their length with a massive glacier. (If you search Behind the Black for “Dao”, “Harmakhis”, or “Reull” you can see many examples.)
With today’s cool image, we appear to be looking at the beginnings of the Harmakhis Valles glacier.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image is a great example of the surprises one can find by exploring the archive of the high resolution pictures that Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has produced since it arrived in Mars orbit back in 2006. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken by MRO’s high resolution camera back on May 4, 2017. I only found it because I had picked out a October 24, 2022 high resolution image that covered a different area of this same flow feature just to the north east. In trying to understand that 2022 picture I dug to see other images had been taken around it, and found the earlier 2017 photo that was even more interesting.
Neither however really covered the entire feature, making it difficult to understand its full nature. I therefore searched the archive of MRO’s context camera, which has imaged the entire planet with less resolution but covering a much wider area per picture. The context camera picture below captures the full nature of this feature.
Click for full image.
The photo to the right was taken on December 24, 2012, ten years ago. It shows a spectacular glacier-like flow that has pushed its way through a gap in a mountain ridge. The white box shows the area covered by the high resolution photo above.
Since 2012 scientists have photographed this flow feature multiple times to see if over time they can detect any motion or change. Changes, including sublimation, would suggest the glacier is shrinking. Motion would suggest the glacier is growing. No change suggests a steady-state condition and an inactive glacier. All three would tell us a great deal about the larger Martian climate. At the resolution available online, however, it is impossible to detect any changes, though a much closer look might tell us differently.
The white dot on the overview map to the right indicates location of this flow feature, at the head of Harmakhis Valles, one of several meandering canyons that cut their way downhill into Hellas Basin, the death valley of Mars. All of these valleys sit in the 30 to 55 degree latitude band where many Martian glaciers are found, and all three appear from many images to be each filled for most of their length with a massive glacier. (If you search Behind the Black for “Dao”, “Harmakhis”, or “Reull” you can see many examples.)
With today’s cool image, we appear to be looking at the beginnings of the Harmakhis Valles glacier.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
That’s very cool, Bob!