UNDERSTANDING EUROPA’S ICE SHELL AND SUBSURFACE WATER THROUGH TERESTRIAL ANALOGS FOR FLYBY RADAR SOUNDING

Abstract:

The recently approved NASA mission to Europa proposes to study this ice-covered moon of Jupiter though a series of fly-by observations of its surface and subsurface from a spacecraft in Jovian orbit. The science goal of this mission is to “explore Europa to investigate its habitability”. One of the primary instruments in the selected scientific payload is a multi-frequency, multi-channel ice penetrating radar system. The “Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON)” will play a critical role in achieving the mission’s habitability driven science objectives, which include characterizing the distribution of any shallow subsurface water, searching for an ice-ocean interface and evaluating a spectrum of ice-ocean-atmosphere exchange hypotheses. The development of successful measurement and data interpretation techniques for exploring Europa will need to leverage knowledge of analogous terrestrial environments and processes. Towards this end, we will discuss a range of terrestrial radioglaciological analogs for hypothesized physical, chemical, and biological processes on Europa and present airborne data collected with the University of Texas dual-frequency radar system over a variety of terrestrial targets. These targets include water filled fractures, brine rich ice, water lenses, accreted marine ice, and ice surfaces with roughness ranging from firn to crevasse fields and will provide context for understanding and optimizing the observable signature of these processes in future radar data collected at Europa.