Pockets of Warming Under the Ice (IMAGE)

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Pockets of Warming Under the Ice

Caption

Polar ice caps on Mars are a combination of water ice and frozen CO2. Like its gaseous form, frozen CO2 allows sunlight to penetrate while trapping heat. In the summer, this solid-state greenhouse effect creates pockets of warming under the ice, seen here as black dots in the ice.

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Harvard SEAS

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