Mars Global Surveyor Bistatic Radar Probing of the MPL/DS2 Target Area
✍ Scribed by Richard A. Simpson; G.Leonard Tyler
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 143 KB
- Volume
- 152
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0019-1035
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✦ Synopsis
Mars
Global Surveyor bistatic radar was used to probe the Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 target areas (76 • S, 195 • W) in May 2000. The behavior of quasi-specular echoes at wavelength λ = 3.6 cm indicates that the top few centimeters of regolith are similar in their reflecting properties everywhere along a track of approximately 1000 km which crosses the MPL/DS2 area. Our provisional estimate of surface dielectric constant ε ∼ 2.25 is consistent with loose soil, moderately packed H 2 O snow, solid CO 2 , or a mixture of at least two. But other data rule out both H 2 O and CO 2 near the surface in late southern summer (L s = 351 • ), leaving dry soil with density ∼1.4 g/cm 3 as the most likely material.