Mars - Southern Polar Ice Cap
The Mars - Southern Polar Ice Cap print from the Radiance Series captures the textured landscape sculpted by seasonal and permanent frost at the edge of Mars’s south pole.
Photographed by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on 14 July 2022, the image reveals the layered and contoured terrain where carbon dioxide ice - or dry ice - accumulates, sublimates, and reshapes the surface. Intricate ridges, pits, and “Swiss cheese” formations emerge as carbon dioxide cycles between atmosphere and ground, each Martian year redrawing the polar landscape.
The southern polar cap is unique within the solar system. Its residual layer consists almost entirely of carbon dioxide ice resting atop a thicker bed of water ice. The fine stratification, in some places only metres deep, holds a record of atmospheric and climatic change stretching back millennia. Seasonal sunlight and pressure shifts repeatedly erode and redeposit frozen carbon dioxide, creating an ever-changing terrain of terraces and hollows that provide valuable insights into Mars’s climate and orbital history.
This print was created from original, high-resolution HiRISE data obtained from the mission archive and processed to preserve the subtle tonal variations and delicate surface detail of the polar deposits.
HiRISE - the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment - has delivered unprecedented imagery of Mars since 2006, advancing research into surface evolution, seasonal processes, and the cycles of water and carbon dioxide that define the planet’s modern climate.
Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Radiance Series
Radiance is our series devoted to image-born works — pictures made by light itself. Drawn from observatory archives and scientific instruments, these pieces begin as high-fidelity sensor images: Mars at meter-scale detail from HiRISE, deep-sky vistas from JWST and ESO/ESA observatories, wide-area surveys, and even terrestrial science—oceanic, geological and biological imagery—where structure and texture emerge directly from the data.
The craft is exacting. We source the highest-resolution originals, reconstruct large fields (for example, stitching complex Mars terrains), and make restrained, evidence-minded adjustments to reveal tone, micro-contrast and fine structure without losing the character of the capture. Each image is then prepared for print at generous sizes—profiled, proofed and tuned with our specialist UK printers—so dune morphologies, dust lanes, cloud bands, crystalline patterns and microscopic architectures resolve with quiet clarity.
Printed on museum-grade papers, Radiance presents planetary, earthly and microscopic worlds with archival discipline and a sense of presence you can stand in front of — photographs in the deepest sense: light recorded, honoured, and given room to breathe.
Printing & Materials
Our Radiance series is produced in collaboration with specialist fine-art printing partners using museum-grade 250 gsm archival giclée paper.
Each print is made to order with exceptional precision and colour accuracy, using pigment-based inks for long-term stability and rich tonal depth.
Prints are carefully rolled in acid-free tissue and shipped in rigid cardboard tubes to ensure they arrive in perfect condition, ready for framing.
All materials and processes are chosen for their longevity, texture, and fidelity to the original artwork, reflecting our commitment to quality and craft.