How Water In Extreme Locations Helps To Control The Current Climate On Mars
Brown, Adrian 1
1 NASA Ames
The Martian poles are the most dynamic regions on the Red Planet, changing almost daily, and exchanging icy material between each pole as the surface warms or cools with the season. Two ices freeze and thaw as part of this cycle - CO2 and H2O. In addition to seasonally varying deposits, there is a surprisingly large amount of water ice quasi-permanently located at each pole. The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has allowed us to discriminate the CO2 and H2O ice seasonal variations and study the dynamics of the (current) Martian energy balance. Dr. Brown will describe the latest results from CRISM and how water in extreme locations helps to control the current climate on Mars.