Impact craters on the North polar cap, such as the one in this digital terrain model, are rare which tells us that the landscape is being actively resurfaced. We know how often impact craters are formed and so we can deduce how fast they are being removed by looking at the size of the crater population. Craters are removed here when they fill up with fresh ice so information on how fast this ice forms can tell us about the climate of Mars both today and in the recent past.
The stereo topography allows us to calculate how much time the floor is in shadow, which determines its temperature and how fast ice accumulates there. The crater pictured here will likely last about 10,000 years before being completely filled with ice.
The perspective view shown here shows how we can combine the imagery and topography when investigating these features.
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/USGS
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