PFS-MEX observation of ices in the residual south polar cap of Mars

Abstract

The Mars Express spacecraft has a highly inclined orbit around Mars and so has been able to observe the south pole of Mars in illuminated conditions at the end of the southern summer ( L=330). Spectra from the planetary Fourier spectrometer (PFS) short wavelength (SW) channel were recorded over the permanent ice cap to study its composition in terms of CO ₂ ice and H ₂O ice. Models are fitted to the observed data, which include a spatial mixture of soil (not covered by ice) and CO ₂ frost (with a specific grain size and a small amount of included dust and H ₂O ice). Two different kinds of spectra were observed: those over the permanent polar cap with almost pure CO ₂ ice, negligible water ice, no soil fraction required, and bright; and those over mixed terrain (at the edge of the cap or near troughs) containing a significant soil spatial fraction, more water ice and smaller CO ₂ grain size. The amount of water ice given by fits to scaled albedo models is less than 10 ppm by weight. When using multi-stream reflectance models with the appropriate lighting geometry, the water amount must be 2-5 times greater than the albedo fit (less than 50 ppm). At the periphery of the residual polar cap, we found a region almost completely covered by water frost, modeled as a mixture of micron-sized and sub-mm sized grains. Our result using a granular mixture of micron-sized grains of water ice and dust with the CO ₂ grains is different from the modeling of OMEGA polar cap observations using molecular mixtures.