Prospects for mapping temporal height variations of the seasonal CO2 snow/ice caps at the Martian poles by co-registration of MOLA profiles ...

• Main Authors: Xiao, Haifeng, Stark, Alexander, Steinbrügge, Gregor, Thor, Robin, Schmidt, Frédéric, Oberst, Jürgen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier BV 2022
• Subjects: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik::520 Astronomie::520 Astronomie und zugeordnete Wissenschaften; Mars; CO2 ice; height variation; MOLA; co-registration; pseudo cross-over adjustment; South Pole; Ice cap; South pole
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-21069; https://depositonce.tu-berlin.de/handle/11303/22268

We investigate the feasibility and demonstrate the merits of using Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) profiles to retrieve seasonal height variations of CO2 snow/ice cap in Mars’ polar areas by applying a co-registration strategy. We present a prototype analysis on the research region of [85.75°S, 86.25°S, 300°E, 330°E] that is located on the residual south polar cap. Our method comprises the recomputation of MOLA footprint coordinates with an updated Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) ephemeris and a revised Mars rotation model. The reprocessed MOLA dataset at the South Pole of Mars (poleward of 78°S) is then self-registered to form a coherent reference digital terrain model (DTM). We co-register segments of reprocessed MOLA profiles to the self-registered MOLA reference DTM to obtain the temporal height differences at either footprints or cross-overs. Subsequently, a two-step Regional Pseudo Cross-over Adjustment (RPCA) procedure is proposed and applied to post-correct the aforementioned temporal height ...