Surface Roughness Variation Across Polar Ice Deposit Boundaries on Mercury

Deutsch, A. N.; Colaprete, A.; Heldmann, J. L.; Elphic, R. C.; Cannon, K. M.

doi:10.1029/2021je007114

Cited by 1 publication

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References 82 publications

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“…There is already evidence that water ice is not uniformly distributed among the available cold traps at either Mercury's north (Deutsch et al 2016) or south (Chabot et al 2018b) poles given the apparent absence of strong radar backscatter in many PSRs, though potential biases in the composite radar products can complicate such investigations (Gläser & Oberst 2022). Independent of radar backscatter, surface roughness derived from MLA measurements is also suggestive of variations in ice abundance between and within individual north polar PSRs (Deutsch et al 2022). The variation in radar backscatter observed within the PSRs of the four large craters in this study (Figure 3) could be further evidence of uneven water ice distribution in Mercury's cold traps that is not correlated with the thermal environment.…”

Section: Radar Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the Stability and Distribution of Surface Ice in Mercury’s Northernmost Craters

et al. 2023

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Observations made by Earth-based radar telescopes and the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft provided compelling evidence for water ice in Mercury's polar craters. In our investigation, we constructed higher-resolution (125 m pixel−1) digital elevation models (DEMs) for four of the largest northernmost craters, Kandinsky, Tolkien, Chesterton, and Tryggvadóttir. The DEMs were leveraged to model solar illumination and the thermal environment, products that were used to identify permanently shadowed regions and simulate surface temperatures. From these models, we predicted the regions of surface stability for ice and volatile organic compounds. These predictions were then compared against the Arecibo radar, Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA), and Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) data. Our radar analysis shows that areas of high radar backscatter are correlated with areas predicted to host surface ice. Additionally, we identify radar backscatter heterogeneities within the deposits that could be associated with variations in ice purity, mantling of the ice, or ice abundances. The MDIS analysis did not reveal conclusive evidence for ice or volatiles at the surface, while MLA results support the presence of water ice at the surface in these craters. However, evidence for boundaries between the surface ice and low-reflectance volatile organic compounds, as suggested could be present by our models, was inconclusive owing to the limited MESSENGER data in these regions. BepiColombo’s upcoming orbital mission at Mercury has the opportunity to obtain new measurements of these high-latitude craters and test our predictions for the distribution of surface volatiles in these environments.

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