An examination of Mars’ north seasonal polar cap using MGS: Composition and infrared radiation balance

A detailed analysis of data from one revolution of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) is presented. Approximately 80% of this revolution observes the mid-winter northern seasonal polar cap, which covers the surface to <60°N, and which is predominantly within polar night. The surface composition and temperature are determined through analysis of 6–50 μm infrared spectra from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES). The infrared radiative balance, which is the entire heat balance in the polar night except for small subsurface and atmospheric advection terms, is calculated for the surface and atmospheric column. The primary constituent, CO2 ice, also dominates the infrared spectral properties by variations in its grain size and by admixtures of dust and water ice, which cause large variations in the 20–50 μm emissivity. This is modified by incomplete areal coverage, and clouds or hazes. This quantitative analysis reveals CO2 grain radii ranging from ∼100 μm in isolated areas, to 1–5 mm in more widespread regions. The water ice content varies from none to about one part per thousand by mass, with a clear increase towards the periphery of the polar cap. The dust content is typically a few parts per thousand by mass, but is as much as an order of magnitude less abundant in “cold spot” regions, where the low emissivity of pure CO2 ice is revealed. This is the first quantitative analysis of thermal spectra of the seasonal polar cap and the first to estimate water ice content. Our models show that the cold spots represent cleaner, dust-free ice rather than finer grained ice than the background. Our guess is that the dust in cold spots is hidden in the center of the CO2 frost particles rather than not present. The fringes of the cap have more dust and water ice, and become patchy, with warmer water snow filling the gaps on the night side, and warmer bare soil on the day side. A low optical depth (<1 in the visible) water ice atmospheric haze is apparent on the night side, and appears with smaller optical depth on the day side. The infrared radiative balance at the surface is typically 20–25 W m−2 in the central polar cap, with ∼25% dips in the regions of dust-free CO2. The atmospheric radiative terms are typically 1–3 W m−2.

► Detailed modeling of TES polar spectra shows dusty CO2 ice rather than slab ice.
► Modeled CO2 ice grain radii vary from 200 μm to 5 mm.
► Modeled dust varies from 0.01% to 1 wt.%.
► Modeled water ice varies from ∼0 to 0.1 wt.%.
► Infrared heat balance calculations are comparable to previous studies.