Surface properties of Galilean satellites from bistatic radar experiments

The icy moons of Jupiter were the first to show unusual radar backscatter behavior in Earth-based experiments. Studies of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto revealed strong echoes and a reversed sense of circular polarization. No explanations were entirely satisfactory because of the difficult constraints imposed by the existing data. The (scalar) bidirectional coherence model predicts an opposition effect, or enhancement in the backscatter direction, resulting from coherent addition of backscatter from identical (but oppositely directed) ray paths. The mode decoupling model yields a similar, vector result in which the observed polarization properties of the backscattered wave can also be obtained. The possibilities were considered for conducting such experiments using the Galileo spacecraft. Both conventional oblique-forward bistatic experiments (to determine basic electrical and physical properties of the surface material on centimeter-meter scales) and near-backscatter experiments (to sample the enhanced backscatter lobe) were considered.