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noosfractal

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Registered: 2005-10-04

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Re: New higher resolution maps of Martian ground ice

Sharp Views Show Ground Ice on Mars is Patchy and Variable
http://themis.asu.edu/news-groundice

Using observations by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, scientists have discovered that water ice lies at variable depths over small-scale patches on Mars.
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The new results were made using infrared images of sites on far-northern and far-southern Mars, where buried water ice within an arm's length of the surface was found five years ago by the Gamma Ray Spectrometer suite of instruments on Mars Odyssey. The smallest patches detectable by those instruments are several hundred times larger than details detectable by the new method of mapping depth-to-ice, which sees differences over scales of a few hundred yards or meters.
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The resulting maps show that the nature of the surface soil makes a difference in how close to the surface the ice lies. Areas with many rocks at the surface, Bandfield explained, "pump a lot of heat into the ground and increase the depth where you'll find stable ice." In contrast, dusty areas tend to insulate the ice, allowing it to survive closer to the surface. "These two surface materials -- rock and dust -- vary widely across the ground, giving underground ice a patchy distribution," he said.

Computer models helped him interpret the temperature observations, he said. "They show areas where water ice would be only an inch or so under the soil, while in other areas ice could lie many feet below the surface."
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