Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 7 June 1985:
Vol. 228. no. 4704, pp. 1160 - 1168
DOI: 10.1126/science.228.4704.1160
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Annual Heat Balance of Martian Polar Caps: Viking Observations

David A. Paige 1 and Andrew P. Ingersoll 2

1 Graduate student in Planetary science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91125.
2 Professor of planetary science in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91125.

The Infrared Thermal Mappers aboard the two Viking orbiters obtained solar reflectance and infrared emission measurements of the Martian north and south polar regions during an entire Mars year. The observations were used to determine annual radiation budgets, infer annual carbon dioxide frost budgets, and constrain spring season surface and atmospheric properties with the aid of a polar radiative model. The results provide further confirmation of the presence of permanent CO2frost deposits near the south pole and show that the stability of these deposits can be explained by their high reflectivities. In the north, the observed absence of solid CO2 during summer was primarily the result of enhanced CO2 sublimation rates due to lower frost reflectivities during spring. The results suggest that the present asymmetric behavior of CO2frost at the Martian poles is caused by preferential contamination of the north seasonal polar cap by atmospheric dust.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Observational Evidence for an Active Surface Reservoir of Solid Carbon Dioxide on Mars.
M. C. Malin, M. A. Caplinger, and S. D. Davis (2001)
Science 294, 2146-2148
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Effect of Surface Roughness on Triton's Volatile Distribution.
R. V. Yelle and R. V. YELLE (1992)
Science 255, 1553-1555
   Abstract »    PDF »
Radar Images of Mars.
D. O. Muhleman, D. O. MUHLEMAN, B. J. BUTLER, A. W. GROSSMAN, and M. A. SLADE (1991)
Science 253, 1508-1513
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)