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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • Mars
  • radar
  • ground water

Index Terms

  • Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Mars
  • Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets: Remote sensing
  • Planetary Sciences: Astrobiology: Hydrothermal systems and weathering on other planets
  • Radio Science: Radar astronomy

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 36, L15206, 5 PP., 2009
doi:10.1029/2009GL038945

Is the Martian water table hidden from radar view?

W. M. Farrell

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

J. J. Plaut

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA

S. A. Cummer

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

D. A. Gurnett

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA

G. Picardi

Infocom Department, La Sapienza, University of Rome, Rome, Italy

T. R. Watters

CEPS, NASM, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., USA

A. Safaeinili

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA

Mars may possess a global sub-surface groundwater table as an integral part of its current hydrological system. However, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) onboard the Mars Express (MEx) spacecraft has yet to make a definitive detection of such a body of liquid water. In this work, we quantify the conditions that would allow a detection of a deep aquifer and demonstrate that the lack of radar detection does not uniquely rule out the presence of such a body. Specifically, if the overlying crustal material has a conductivity above ∼10−5 S/m (equivalent to a loss tanget of 0.008), a radar echo from an aquifer could be sufficiently attenuated by the intervening medium to prevent its detection by MARSIS. As such, the lack of direct detection by MARSIS–a “null result”–does not rule out the possibility of the water table's existence.

Received 29 April 2009; accepted 17 June 2009; published 14 August 2009.

Citation: Farrell, W. M., J. J. Plaut, S. A. Cummer, D. A. Gurnett, G. Picardi, T. R. Watters, and A. Safaeinili (2009), Is the Martian water table hidden from radar view?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L15206, doi:10.1029/2009GL038945.

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