3-D Radar Imaging Reveals Deep Structures and Buried Craters Within the Martian Polar Caps

Abstract:

We use Shallow Radar (SHARAD) observations on thousands of orbital passes by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to produce fully imaged 3-D data volumes encompassing both polar ice caps of Mars. Greatly clarifying the view of subsurface features, a completed volume for Planum Boreum provides new constraints on the nature and timing of emplacement of the northern polar deposits and their relationship to climate. The standard method of mapping subsurface features with single-pass 2-D radargrams has been very fruitful (see Brothers et al. 2015, JGR 120 in press, and references therein), but a full assessment of internal structures has been hindered by interfering off-nadir echoes from spiral troughs and other variable topography prevalent on both caps. By assembling the SHARAD radargrams into a volume and applying a 3-D imaging process (migration) borrowed from seismic processing techniques, we enhance the signal-to-noise ratio while repositioning the echoes to their proper locations, thereby unraveling the interference. As part of the process, we correct ionospheric distortions and delays of the radar echoes (Campbell et al. 2014, IEEE GRSL 11 #3). Interfaces painstakingly mapped in radargrams (e.g., the basal-unit surface, a buried chasma) are clearly visible in the 3-D volume, and new features are revealed. Structures may now be mapped through trough-rich regions, including a widespread sequence that provides corroborative evidence of recent ice ages (Smith et al. 2015, LPSC XLVI #2574). Distinctive radar signatures associated with known, partially buried craters also occur elsewhere in the volume but without surface expression. Presumably, these are fully buried craters that may provide a new means to estimate the age of the deposits. Preliminary work for Planum Australe demonstrates that the 3-D processing currently underway will illuminate deep structures that are broadly obfuscated in 2-D radargrams by a shallow scatterer (Campbell et al. 2015, LPSC XLVI #2366).