MOLA coverage of the north polar region of Mars.
Close-up of MOLA coverage in the polar gap.
Pass 404 crosses directly over the north pole and provides a measurement of the thickness of the northern ice cap. The MGS spacecraft was pointing about 50° off-nadir for this profile.
Pass 231 crossed the residual ice cap and shows low regional slopes characteristic of thick ice.
The MOLA team thanks our colleagues at the MGS Project and Lockheed-Martin
for assistance in making these challenging off-nadir observations of Mars' north
pole. These observations enabled the first direct measurement of the thickness
of Mars' north polar cap. Results are currently being prepared for submission
to