Contains:  Solar system body or event
Southern Polar Cap of Mars - seasonal changes as winter turns to spring, LacailleOz

Southern Polar Cap of Mars - seasonal changes as winter turns to spring

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging
Southern Polar Cap of Mars - seasonal changes as winter turns to spring, LacailleOz

Southern Polar Cap of Mars - seasonal changes as winter turns to spring

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

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Description

I assembled these images to show seasonal changes in the SPC in two oppositions, 2018 and 2020. I have paired images from each of those oppositions in terms of time after the respective southern winter solstice. The 2018 changes are of course affected by the dust storm of May 2018. The SPC consists of an underlying permanent patch of frozen water, overlain by frozen CO2 that builds up then is burnt off as winter recedes. The SPC typically increases in extent after the winter solstice (20/11/2017 and 8/10/2019) up until just before the spring equinox (22/05/2018 and 8/04/2020). You can see that a few days ago, 4 June 2020, there is a large hole appearing in the SPC.

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Southern Polar Cap of Mars - seasonal changes as winter turns to spring, LacailleOz