Radar Soundings of the Subsurface of Mars

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1122165
• Publication Date: 2005-12-01T01:24:37Z
• Authors: Giovanni Picardi; Jeffrey J. Plaut; Daniela Biccari; Ornella Bombaci; Diego Calabrese; Marco Cartacci; Andrea Cicchetti; Stephen M. Clifford; Peter Edenhofer; William M. Farrell; Costanzo Federico; Alessandro Frigeri; Donald A. Gurnett; Tor Hagfors; Essam Heggy; Alain Herique; Richard L. Huff; Anton B. Ivanov; William T. K. Joh...; Rolando L. Jordan; Donald L. Kirchner; Wlodek Kofman; Carlton J. Leuschen; Erling Nielsen; Roberto Orosei; Elena Pettinelli; Roger J. Phillips; Dirk Plettemeier; Ali Safaeinili; Roberto Seu; Ellen R. Stofan; Giuliano Vannaroni; Thomas R. Watters; Enrico Zampolini
• Keywords: Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS); 550; Mars; 523; Mars; radar; subsurface; 01 natural sciences; EVOLUTION; radar subsurface mars; 13. Climate action; Mars Express orbiter; structure; GEOLOGIC HISTORY; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

The martian subsurface has been probed to kilometer depths by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding instrument aboard the Mars Express orbiter. Signals penetrate the polar layered deposits, probably imaging the base of the deposits. Data from the northern lowlands of Chryse Planitia have revealed a shallowly buried quasi-circular structure about 250 kilometers in diameter that is interpreted to be an impact basin. In addition, a planar reflector associated with the basin structure may indicate the presence of a low-loss deposit that is more than 1 kilometer thick.