Explaining Bright Radar Reflections Below The Martian South Polar Layered Deposits Without Liquid Water
Recent discoveries of anomalously bright radar reflections below the Mars South Polar Layered Deposit (SPLD) have sparked new speculation that liquid water may be present below the ice cap. The reflections, discovered in data acquired by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Soundin...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
arXiv
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2107.03497 https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.03497 |
| _version_ | 1821539990218211328 |
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| author | Lalich, Daniel E. Hayes, Alexander G. Poggiali, Valerio |
| author_facet | Lalich, Daniel E. Hayes, Alexander G. Poggiali, Valerio |
| author_sort | Lalich, Daniel E. |
| collection | DataCite |
| description | Recent discoveries of anomalously bright radar reflections below the Mars South Polar Layered Deposit (SPLD) have sparked new speculation that liquid water may be present below the ice cap. The reflections, discovered in data acquired by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) on board the Mars Express orbiter, were interpreted as reflections from damp materials or even subsurface ponds and lakes similar to those found beneath Earth's ice sheets. Recent studies, however, have questioned the feasibility of melting and maintaining liquid water below the SPLD. Herein, we compare radar simulations to MARSIS observations in order to present an alternate hypothesis: that the bright reflections are the result of interference between multiple layer boundaries, with no liquid water present. This new interpretation is more consistent with known conditions on modern Mars. |
| format | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| genre | Ice cap |
| genre_facet | Ice cap |
| id | ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.2107.03497 |
| institution | Open Polar |
| language | unknown |
| op_collection_id | ftdatacite |
| op_doi | https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2107.03497 |
| op_rights | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
| op_rightsnorm | CC-BY |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | arXiv |
| record_format | openpolar |
| spelling | ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.2107.03497 2025-01-16T22:23:04+00:00 Explaining Bright Radar Reflections Below The Martian South Polar Layered Deposits Without Liquid Water Lalich, Daniel E. Hayes, Alexander G. Poggiali, Valerio 2021 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2107.03497 https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.03497 unknown arXiv Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP Geophysics physics.geo-ph FOS Physical sciences Article CreativeWork article Preprint 2021 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2107.03497 2022-03-10T13:52:24Z Recent discoveries of anomalously bright radar reflections below the Mars South Polar Layered Deposit (SPLD) have sparked new speculation that liquid water may be present below the ice cap. The reflections, discovered in data acquired by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) on board the Mars Express orbiter, were interpreted as reflections from damp materials or even subsurface ponds and lakes similar to those found beneath Earth's ice sheets. Recent studies, however, have questioned the feasibility of melting and maintaining liquid water below the SPLD. Herein, we compare radar simulations to MARSIS observations in order to present an alternate hypothesis: that the bright reflections are the result of interference between multiple layer boundaries, with no liquid water present. This new interpretation is more consistent with known conditions on modern Mars. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice cap DataCite |
| spellingShingle | Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP Geophysics physics.geo-ph FOS Physical sciences Lalich, Daniel E. Hayes, Alexander G. Poggiali, Valerio Explaining Bright Radar Reflections Below The Martian South Polar Layered Deposits Without Liquid Water |
| title | Explaining Bright Radar Reflections Below The Martian South Polar Layered Deposits Without Liquid Water |
| title_full | Explaining Bright Radar Reflections Below The Martian South Polar Layered Deposits Without Liquid Water |
| title_fullStr | Explaining Bright Radar Reflections Below The Martian South Polar Layered Deposits Without Liquid Water |
| title_full_unstemmed | Explaining Bright Radar Reflections Below The Martian South Polar Layered Deposits Without Liquid Water |
| title_short | Explaining Bright Radar Reflections Below The Martian South Polar Layered Deposits Without Liquid Water |
| title_sort | explaining bright radar reflections below the martian south polar layered deposits without liquid water |
| topic | Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP Geophysics physics.geo-ph FOS Physical sciences |
| topic_facet | Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP Geophysics physics.geo-ph FOS Physical sciences |
| url | https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2107.03497 https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.03497 |