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: Orbiter; Mars landing; Regolith

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