Revising the Basal Permittivity of the South Polar Layered Deposits of Mars With a Surficial Dust Cover
Abstract Bright basal reflections from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) have been proposed to be consistent with permittivities characteristic of a wet material beneath the south polar layered deposits (SPLD). The characterization of a recently formed impact cr...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2024-06-01
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| Series: | Geophysical Research Letters |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL109085 |
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| Summary: | Abstract Bright basal reflections from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) have been proposed to be consistent with permittivities characteristic of a wet material beneath the south polar layered deposits (SPLD). The characterization of a recently formed impact crater highlight the existence of a several meters thick ice‐poor layer associated to a unit blanketing a large portion of the SPLD. We revise the radar propagation model used to invert the basal permittivity by including a surficial thin layer. We find that the inverted basal permittivity is highly sensitive to the properties of such a layer, with solutions ranging from common dry rocks to an unambiguously wet base. We advocate toward a better characterization of the surficial cover to assess the wet or dry nature for the base, and possibly reconcile most of the literature on the topic. |
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| ISSN: | 0094-8276 1944-8007 |