Subsurface radar sounding of the south polar layered deposits of Mars

Jeffrey Plaut (1) , Giovanni Picardi (2) , Ali Safaeinili (1) , Anton Ivanov (1) , S. Milkovich (1) , Andrea Cicchetti (2) , Wlodek Kofman (3) , Jeremie Mouginot (3) , William Farrell (4) , Roger Phillips (5) , Stephen Clifford (6) , Alessandro Frigeri (7) , R. Orosei (8) , Costanzo Federico (7) , I. Williams (9) , Donald Gurnett (10) , Erling Nielsen (11) , Tor Hagfors (11) , Essam Heggy (6) , Ellen Stofan (12) , Dirk Plettemeier (13) , Thomas Watters (14) , Carlton Leuschen (15) , Peter Edenhofer (16)

1 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
2 Dipartimento INFOCOM [Roma]
3 LPG - Laboratoire de Planétologie de Grenoble
4 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
5 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences [St Louis]
6 LPI - Lunar and Planetary Institute [Houston]
7 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra
8 IFSI - Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario
9 AU - Astronomy Unit [London]
10 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Iowa City]
11 MPS - Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
12 Proxemy Research Inc
13 Fakultaet fuer Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik
14 CEPS - Center for Earth and Planetary Studies [Washington]
15 CReSIS - Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets
16 Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik

The ice-rich south polar layered deposits of Mars were probed with the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding on the Mars Express orbiter. The radar signals penetrate deep into the deposits (more than 3.7 kilometers). For most of the area, a reflection is detected at a time delay that is consistent with an interface between the deposits and the substrate. The reflected power from this interface indicates minimal attenuation of the signal, suggesting a composition of nearly pure water ice. Maps were generated of the topography of the basal interface and the thickness of the layered deposits. A set of buried depressions is seen within 300 kilometers of the pole. The thickness map shows an asymmetric distribution of the deposits and regions of anomalous thickness. The total volume is estimated to be 1.6 x 10(6) cubic kilometers, which is equivalent to a global water layer approximately 11 meters thick.

Keywords: CAP; REGION

Jeffrey Plaut, Giovanni Picardi, Ali Safaeinili, Anton Ivanov, S. Milkovich, et al.. Subsurface radar sounding of the south polar layered deposits of Mars. Science, 2007, 316 (5821), pp.92-95. ⟨10.1126/science.1139672⟩. ⟨insu-00359627⟩