Performance validation of the ExoMars 2018 WISDOM GPR in ice caves, Austria

The WISDOM (Water Ice Subsurface Deposits Observations on Mars) Ground Penetrating Radar has been selected to be part of the ExoMars 2018 exobiological rover mission. A prototype has been tested during the Mars Simulation organized by the Austrian Space Forum in Alpine ice caves in Dachstein, Austria. This campaign provided the opportunity to validate methods developed to process WISDOM’s data in a well-documented environment and to retrieve geometrical and quantitative information about the 3D structure and the electromagnetic properties of the subsurface. We estimate the ice thickness in different locations inside the ice caves, and show that this ice is formed of fine strata with different properties. Data analysis allows reconstructing the bedrock in a 3D environment where a complete survey was performed.

[1]  M. Behm,et al.  Imaging the structure of cave ice by ground-penetrating radar , 2011 .

[2]  Roberto Orosei,et al.  Permittivity estimation of layers beneath the northern polar layered deposits, Mars , 2010 .

[3]  C. Spötl,et al.  First investigations of an ice core from Eisriesenwelt cave (Austria) , 2010 .

[4]  Bryn Hubbard,et al.  A review of the use of radio-echo sounding in glaciology , 2001 .

[5]  E. Heggy,et al.  Dielectric and hardness measurements of planetary analog rocks in support of in-situ subsurface sampling , 2013 .

[6]  Uwe Nixdorf,et al.  Alpine ice cores and ground penetrating radar: combined investigations for glaciological and climatic interpretations of a cold Alpine ice body , 2003 .

[7]  N. H. Fletcher,et al.  The Chemical Physics of Ice: Liquid water and freezing , 1970 .

[8]  Sébastien Lambot,et al.  Full-Wave Calibration of Time- and Frequency-Domain Ground-Penetrating Radar in Far-Field Conditions , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[9]  Chris H. Okubo,et al.  Dielectric properties of lava flows west of Ascraeus Mons, Mars , 2009 .

[10]  Andreas Tzanis,et al.  A FREEWARE PACKAGE FOR THE ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF COMMON-OFFSET GROUND PROBING RADAR DATA, BASED ON GENERAL PURPOSE COMPUTING ENGINES , 2004 .

[11]  R. Greeley,et al.  Measurements of dielectric loss factors due to a Martian dust analog , 2004 .

[12]  A. B. Crawford,et al.  A reflection theory for propagation beyond the horizon , 1957 .

[13]  Sebastian Meszyński,et al.  Analog Mars Rover Service as a Robotic Hardware and Team Building Platform , 2013 .

[14]  I. Clark,et al.  Kinetic enrichment of stable isotopes in cryogenic calcites , 1992 .

[15]  R. Jordan,et al.  Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) after nine years of operation: A summary , 2015 .

[16]  Richard V. Morris,et al.  Martian soil simulant available for scientific, educational study , 1998 .

[17]  Roberto Orosei,et al.  Radar Soundings of the Subsurface of Mars , 2005, Science.

[18]  Dirk Plettemeier,et al.  WISDOM GPR Designed for Shallow and High-Resolution Sounding of the Martian Subsurface , 2011, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[19]  Evert Slob,et al.  Surface and borehole ground-penetrating-radar developments , 2010 .

[20]  Roberto Orosei,et al.  SHARAD radar sounding of the Vastitas Borealis Formation in Amazonis Planitia , 2008 .

[21]  O. Eisen,et al.  Direct evidence for continuous radar reflector originating from changes in crystal-orientation fabric , 2007 .

[22]  B. Scheers,et al.  GPR design and modeling for identifying the shallow subsurface dielectric properties , 2003, Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop onAdvanced Ground Penetrating Radar, 2003..

[23]  Marnik Vanclooster,et al.  Modeling of ground-penetrating Radar for accurate characterization of subsurface electric properties , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[24]  R. Jeanloz,et al.  Introduction to the physics of rocks , 1994 .

[25]  Philippe Paillou,et al.  On Water Detection in the Martian Subsurface Using Sounding Radar , 2001 .

[26]  Davide Del Vento,et al.  Electromagnetic measurements on Martian soil analogs: Implications for MARSIS and SHARAD radars in detecting subsoil water , 2007 .

[27]  Roberto Orosei,et al.  Shallow radar (SHARAD) sounding observations of the Medusae Fossae Formation, Mars , 2009 .

[28]  C. Spötl,et al.  The mass and energy balance of ice within the Eisriesenwelt cave, Austria , 2010 .

[29]  Roland Siegwart,et al.  The ExoMars rover and Pasteur payload Phase A study: an approach to experimental astrobiology , 2006 .

[30]  Johan Alexander Huisman,et al.  Measuring soil water content with ground penetrating radar , 2003 .

[31]  Neville H Fletcher,et al.  The Chemical Physics of Ice , 1970 .

[33]  Roberto Orosei,et al.  Radar Sounding of the Medusae Fossae Formation Mars: Equatorial Ice or Dry, Low-Density Deposits? , 2007, Science.

[34]  Mark Woods,et al.  SAFER: The promising results of the Mars mission simulation campaign in Atacama, Chile , 2014 .

[35]  J. Legarsky,et al.  Coherent radar ice thickness measurements over the Greenland ice sheet , 2001 .

[36]  W. Boynton,et al.  Water and chlorine content in the Martian soil along the first 1900 m of the Curiosity rover traverse as estimated by the DAN instrument , 2014 .

[37]  Dirk Plettemeier,et al.  Full polarimetric GPR antenna system aboard the ExoMars rover , 2009, 2009 IEEE Radar Conference.

[38]  A. Tarussov,et al.  Soil Water Content Determination Using a Digital Ground-Penetrating Radar , 1996 .

[39]  Roberto Orosei,et al.  Dielectric constant estimation of the uppermost Basal Unit layer in the martian Boreales Scopuli region , 2012 .

[40]  A. R. Pisani,et al.  Laboratory investigations into the electromagnetic properties of magnetite/silica mixtures as Martian soil simulants , 2005 .

[41]  A. P. Annan,et al.  Measuring Soil Water Content with Ground Penetrating Radar: A Review , 2003 .

[42]  Roberto Orosei,et al.  Performance and surface scattering models for the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) , 2003 .

[43]  Tom Scullion,et al.  AUTOMATED PAVEMENT SUBSURFACE PROFILING USING RADAR: CASE STUDIES OF FOUR EXPERIMENTAL FIELD SITES , 1992 .

[44]  Steven A. Arcone,et al.  Short-pulse radar wavelet recovery and resolution of dielectric contrasts within englacial and basal ice of Matanuska Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A. , 1995, Journal of Glaciology.

[45]  Steven A. Arcone,et al.  Ground-penetrating radar reflection profiling of groundwater and bedrock in an area of discontinuous permafrost , 1998 .

[46]  Takeshi Matsuoka,et al.  A summary of the complex dielectric permittivity of ice in the megahertz range and its applications for radar sounding of polar ice sheets , 2000 .