Is there radar evidence for liquid water on Mars?

• Main Author: Roth, L. E.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1984
• Subjects: 91; permafrost
• Online Access: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19840015461

The hypothesis that an extraordinary radar smoothness of a lunar target suggests that ground moisture is rest on the assumption that on the penetration-depth scale, the dielectric constant be an isotropic quantity. In other words, the planet's surface should have no vertical structure. Results of modeling exercises (based on the early lunar two-layer models) conducted to simulate the behavior of radar reflectivity, at S-band, over Solis Lacus, without manipulating the dielectric constant of the base layer (i.e., without adding moisture) are summarized. More sophisticated, explicit, rather than iterative multi-layer models involving dust, duricrust, mollisol, and permafrost are under study. It is anticipated that a paradoxical situation will be reached when each improvement in the model introduces additional ambiguities into the data interpretation.