This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Mars shares many landforms and weather patterns with Earth, including changing seasons, volcanoes, canyons, dust storms, dust devils and water ice. Another feature that Earth and Mars share is polar ice caps.
These are among each planet's striking features, but the major difference is that Earth's polar ice caps are both composed of water, while Mars' north polar ice cap is composed only of water and its southern polar ice cap is carbon dioxide. The reasons for this are determined by altitude. Mars' northern polar ice cap is one of the most studied regions, primarily because of its water ice composition.
But how does the water ice in the north polar ice cap change with the seasons compared with Earth's, and what can this teach scientists about Mars' climate history? Now, an international team of researchers might have shed new light on this conundrum. As discussed in a recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, the researchers challenged our understanding of ice deposits in Mars' northern polar ice cap region.
The primary motivation behind this study was to fill a longstanding knowledge gap regarding the seasonal changes in Martian polar ice deposits, specifically focusing on craters. The researchers note that better understanding seasonal changes in polar ice cap deposits could provide insights into long-term climate changes on the red planet. For the study, the researchers analyzed images of 36 craters within the northern polar ice cap region of Mars.
The images were obtained from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter between 2006 and 2025. This period is also referred to as Mars Years (MY) 28–38 since one year on Mars is about 668 Martian days. The goal of the study was to identify how polar ice deposits on crater floors changed with the seasons, specifically whether the deposits increased in size during winter or decreased during summer.
The researchers found that 32 of the 36 craters exhibited changes in bright deposits, broadly indicating that ice deposits are expanding and shrinking with the seasons. In the remaining four craters, the researchers didn't observe changes in brightness. The researchers note that seasonal frost deposits on the outside of each crater could be responsible for the changes in brightness.
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