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Originally published in Science Express on 30 November 2005
Science 23 December 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5756, pp. 1925 - 1928
DOI: 10.1126/science.1122165
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Research Articles

Radar Soundings of the Subsurface of Mars

Giovanni Picardi,1 Jeffrey J. Plaut,2* Daniela Biccari,1 Ornella Bombaci,3 Diego Calabrese,3 Marco Cartacci,1 Andrea Cicchetti,1 Stephen M. Clifford,4 Peter Edenhofer,5 William M. Farrell,6 Costanzo Federico,7 Alessandro Frigeri,7 Donald A. Gurnett,8 Tor Hagfors,9 Essam Heggy,4 Alain Herique,10 Richard L. Huff,8 Anton B. Ivanov,2 William T. K. Johnson,2 Rolando L. Jordan,2 Donald L. Kirchner,8 Wlodek Kofman,10 Carlton J. Leuschen,11 Erling Nielsen,9 Roberto Orosei,12 Elena Pettinelli,14 Roger J. Phillips,15 Dirk Plettemeier,16 Ali Safaeinili,2 Roberto Seu,1 Ellen R. Stofan,17 Giuliano Vannaroni,13 Thomas R. Watters,18 Enrico Zampolini3

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.

1 Infocom Department, "La Sapienza" University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy.
2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
3 Alcatel Alenia Space Italia, 00131 Rome, Italy.
4 Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
5 Fakultaet fuer Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany.
6 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
7 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy.
8 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
9 Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany.
10 Laboratoire de Planetologie de Grenoble, 38041 Grenoble Cedex, France.
11 Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD 20723, USA.
12 Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, 00133 Rome, Italy
13 Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, 00133 Rome, Italy.
14 Dipartimento di Fisica, University of Rome 3, 00146 Rome, Italy.
15 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
16 Fakultaet fuer Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Technische Universitaet Dresden, D-01062 Dresden, Germany.
17 Proxemy Research, Laytonsville, MD 20882, USA.
18 Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: plaut{at}jpl.nasa.gov

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