Principal Investigator

Mark Wronkiewicz, wronk@jpl.nasa.gov
Serina Diniega, serina.diniega@jpl.nasa.gov

Description

The annual cycle of carbon dioxide (CO2) and water on Mars significantly impacts Martian weather, landscapes, and landforms. To investigate the distribution of frost for research and mission planning, past studies have either created global maps from a single instrument or compiled high-resolution data from multiple instruments for small areas. However, no comprehensive global map has combined multiple data sources into a single, global map. To overcome these limitations, our multidisciplinary team leveraged both planetary science and data science expertise to derive a global, probabilistic, sub-kilometer resolution frost map from five Martian remote sensing datasets:

• Visible data from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and Context Camera (CTX)
• Thermal data from the Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) and the Thermal Imaging System (THEMIS)
• Spectral data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer (CRISM)

Creating these data products was possible through the application of techniques like machine learning, gaussian process regression, and repeatable pipeline management tools as well as a deep collaboration between data scientists and planetary scientists. Our maps are publicly available on JMARS to enable follow-on studies, including providing global context for sites with frost-related activity, supplying boundary information for regional or global climate models, and predicting conditions for future Mars missions.