The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS): concept and performance

Author

Picardi, G. ; Sorge, S. ; Seu, R. ; Plaut, J.J. ; Johnson, W. T K ; Jordan, R.L. ; Gurnett, D.A. ; Orosei, R. ; Borgarelli, L. ; Braconi, G. ; Zelli, C. ; Zampolini, E.

Author_Institution

INFOCOM Dept., Rome Univ., Italy

Volume

5

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

2674

Abstract

Describes the key features and expected performance of a new radar sounder instrument currently under development by a team of Italian and US researchers and industrial partners, selected to fly with the ESA Mars Express orbiter scheduled for launch to Mars late in 2003. Very low transmitted frequency (1-5 MHz), large instantaneous bandwidth and coherent on-board processing techniques will make it possible to acquire a large amount of science-relevant data about the Mars interior, surface and atmosphere ensuring global coverage at all latitudes while respecting the Mars Express mission constraints

Keywords

Mars; planetary atmospheres; planetary surfaces; space vehicles; spaceborne radar; 1 to 5 MHz; ESA Mars Express orbiter; MARSIS; Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding; Mars atmosphere; Mars interior; Mars surface; bandwidth; frequency; global coverage; mission constraints; on-board processing techniques; radar sounder instrument; Acoustic propagation; Bandwidth; Electromagnetic scattering; Frequency; Ground penetrating radar; Instruments; Ionosphere; Mars; Planetary orbits; Spaceborne radar;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 1999. IGARSS '99 Proceedings. IEEE 1999 International

Conference_Location

Hamburg

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5207-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.1999.771614

Filename

771614