The icy crusts of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter are supposed to be one of the potentially habitable zones of the solar system, and subsurface water oceans are believed to lie beneath them. The ice penetrating radar sounder RIME (Radar for Icy Moon Exploration) housed on board the JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) mission is expected to probe the icy crust of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto up to a depth of about 9 km. The main objectives of RIME are: the characterization of the ice shell of Ganymede; the detection of melt materials inside the Europa's ice shell; the determination of the regolith thickness on Callisto. The penetration of the radar signal is strictly connected to the electromagnetic properties of the ice, that in turn depends on the presence of contaminants and temperature profile inside the satellite's crust. Laboratory measurements carried out in the temperature range of (100-273)K provided the dielectric properties of pure and doped ice (salts, acids and dusts), whereas temperature profiles are obtained taking into account the heat conduction and diapiric convection models for the Galilean satellites. The combination of electromagnetic and thermal properties of the icy crust, allowed us to generate simulated radar data at the operation frequency of RIME (9 MHz). Such simulations are important to determine the radar performance in the icy crusts, and in particular to estimate the signal penetration and the capability to resolve buried layers.
DI PAOLO, F., Cosciotti, B., Lauro, S., Mattei, E., Pettinelli, E., Vannaroni, G. (2014). Thermal and electromagnetic models for radar sounding of the Galilean satellite icy crusts. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar [10.1109/ICGPR.2014.6970446].
Thermal and electromagnetic models for radar sounding of the Galilean satellite icy crusts
DI PAOLO, FEDERICO;COSCIOTTI, BARBARA;LAURO, SEBASTIAN;MATTEI, ELISABETTA;PETTINELLI, Elena;
2014-01-01
Abstract
The icy crusts of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter are supposed to be one of the potentially habitable zones of the solar system, and subsurface water oceans are believed to lie beneath them. The ice penetrating radar sounder RIME (Radar for Icy Moon Exploration) housed on board the JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) mission is expected to probe the icy crust of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto up to a depth of about 9 km. The main objectives of RIME are: the characterization of the ice shell of Ganymede; the detection of melt materials inside the Europa's ice shell; the determination of the regolith thickness on Callisto. The penetration of the radar signal is strictly connected to the electromagnetic properties of the ice, that in turn depends on the presence of contaminants and temperature profile inside the satellite's crust. Laboratory measurements carried out in the temperature range of (100-273)K provided the dielectric properties of pure and doped ice (salts, acids and dusts), whereas temperature profiles are obtained taking into account the heat conduction and diapiric convection models for the Galilean satellites. The combination of electromagnetic and thermal properties of the icy crust, allowed us to generate simulated radar data at the operation frequency of RIME (9 MHz). Such simulations are important to determine the radar performance in the icy crusts, and in particular to estimate the signal penetration and the capability to resolve buried layers.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
