Subsurface Radar Sounding of the South Polar Layered Deposits of Mars

The ice-rich south polar layered deposits of Mars were probed with the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding on the Mars Express orbiter. The radar signals penetrate deep into the deposits (more than 3.7 kilometers). For most of the area, a reflection is detected at a time delay that is consistent with an interface between the deposits and the substrate. The reflected power from this interface indicates minimal attenuation of the signal, suggesting a composition of nearly pure water ice. Maps were generated of the topography of the basal interface and the thickness of the layered deposits. A set of buried depressions is seen within 300 kilometers of the pole. The thickness map shows an asymmetric distribution of the deposits and regions of anomalous thickness. The total volume is estimated to be 1.6 x 10⁶ cubic kilometers, which is equivalent to a global water layer approximately 11 meters thick.

¹ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
² Infocom Department, "La Sapienza" University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy.
³ Laboratoire de Planetologie de Grenoble, 38041 Grenoble Cedex, France.
⁴ NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
⁵ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
⁶ Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
⁷ Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy.
⁸ Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, 00133 Rome, Italy.
⁹ Astronomy Unit, School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK.
¹⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
¹¹ Max Planck Institute for Solar System Resarch, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany.
¹² Proxemy Research, Laytonsville, MD 20882, USA.
¹³ Fakultaet fuer Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Technische Universitaet Dresden, D-01062 Dresden, Germany.
¹⁴ Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA.
¹⁵ Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
¹⁶ Fakultaet fuer Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany.

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