HR: 1340h
AN: SA13A-1124    [Abstracts]
TI: Considerations for a Radar System to Detect an Ocean Underneath the Icy Shell of Europa
AU: * Markus, T
EM: thorsten.markus@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Laboratory f. Hydrospheric Processes Code 975, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Gogineni, P
EM: gogineni@ittc.ku.edu
AF: University of Kansas, Information and Telecommunication Technology Center, Lawrence, KS 60045 United States
AU: Green, J L
EM: James.green@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Godddard Space Flight Center, Space Science Directorate Code 600, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Cooper, J F
EM: jfcooper@pop600.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Godddard Space Flight Center, Space Science Directorate Code 600, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Fung, S F
EM: fung@mail630.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Godddard Space Flight Center, Space Science Directorate Code 600, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Taylor, W W
EM: taylor@mail630.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Godddard Space Flight Center, Space Science Directorate Code 600, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Benson, R F
EM: Robert.F.Benson@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Godddard Space Flight Center, Space Science Directorate Code 600, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Reinisch, B W
EM: bodo_reinisch@uml.edu
AF: University of Massachusetts, Center for Atmospheric Research, Lowell, MA 01854 United States
AU: Song, P
EM: paul_song@uml.edu
AF: University of Massachusetts, Center for Atmospheric Research, Lowell, MA 01854 United States
AB: The detection of an ocean underneath Europa is one of the primary objectives of the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) mission. An orbiting surface penetrating radar has the potential of providing that measurement thus yielding information regarding the possibility of life support on Europa. Radars in the MHz range have successfully monitored the kilometer-deep ice shelves of Greenland and Antarctica, including the detection of Lake Vostok (and others) below an ice sheet thickness of about 4 km. The performance of a radar system orbiting Europa will be subject to several potential complications and unknowns. Besides ionospheric dispersion and the actual depth of the ocean, which is estimated between 2 and 30 km, major unknowns affecting radar performance are the temperature profile, the amount of salt and other impurities within the ice crust as well as the surface roughness. These impurities can in part be produced at the highly irradiated surface by magnetospheric interactions and transported downward into the ice crust by geologic processes. The ionospheric interference must also be modeled from effects of these interactions on production of the thin neutral atmosphere and subsequent ionization of the neutrals. We investigated these uncertainties through radar simulations using different surface and ice characteristics over a frequency range from 10 to 50 MHz. The talk will present results from these simulations discussing potential limitations.
DE: 8094 Instruments and techniques
DE: 5464 Remote sensing
DE: 6218 Jovian satellites
DE: 6297 Instruments and techniques
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting