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Considerations for a Radar System to Detect an Ocean Underneath the Icy Shell of EuropaThe 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.
Document ID
20050157084
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Markus, Thorsten
Gogineni, Prasad
Green, James
Cooper, John
Fung, Shing
Taylor, William
Benson, Robert
Reinisch, Bodo
Song, Paul
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2004
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Meeting Information
Meeting: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting
Location: San Francisco, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: December 12, 2004
End Date: December 18, 2004
Sponsors: American Geophysical Union
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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