Is the Martian water table hidden from radar view?

Is the Martian water table hidden from radar view?

[1] 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 aquife...

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Martian Surface Radar Reflectivity by Marsis

Introduction: Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) on board Mars Express is a decameter sounder radar, which can work in two different modes : subsurface or ionosphere sounding. The subsurface sounding uses 4 different frequency bands, which are centered to 1.8, 3, 4 and 5 MHz. Each band is 1 MHz wide. [1,2]. In this work, we study the reflectivity of Martian surf...

SAINTENOY AND HOPMANS: GPR WATER TABLE DETECTION SENSITIVITY 1 Ground Penetrating Radar: water table detection sensitivity to soil water retention properties

We are interested in Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) as a geophysical tool useful for determining the depth of the ground water table (GWT) and for monitoring shallow water infiltration in sandy soils. At hydrostatic equilibrium, the water content distribution in a homogeneous unsaturated soil down to the water saturated zone depends on the soil water retention function. A classical way to fit r...

HF Radar Sea-echo from Shallow Water

HF radar systems are widely and routinely used for the measurement of ocean surface currents and waves. Analysis methods presently in use are based on the assumption of infinite water depth, and may therefore be inadequate close to shore where the radar echo is strongest. In this paper, we treat the situation when the radar echo is returned from ocean waves that interact with the ocean floor. S...