Marsis Melacom compatibility test

The purposes of this document is to provide a brief description of the activities performed by MARSIS and MELACOM, during the latest test campaign, in order to detect eventually incompatibilities

Marsis radar: the signal processing pipeline

The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) is a nadir-looking pulse limited radar sounder, which uses synthetic aperture (SAR) techniques and is carried by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft. MARSIS has the main task of evidencing the presence of water, both liquid and solid, on Mars, with the secondary objective of characterizing the structure of the Martian ionosphere

JUICE Rime / data volume and global coverage estimation

The aim of this document is to provide to the science and technical community, involved in the Rime project, the main orbital parameters of the Juice SC on Ganymede

Rosetta Virtis instrument simulation and validation tool

This document provides a detailed description of the SW architecture for the validation of the VIRTIS command sequences

Marsis radar: Level 2 Processor Requirements

The primary task of Level 2 data processor is the Range Compression of the Marsis collected echoes during the subsurface modes (except for the SS2 Mode) and transmitted to the ground. These data are only compressed in azimuth on board (Doppler Filters output). Since these data have been distorted by the Ionosphere, we cannot use an ideal reference function (the ideal chirp) for range compression. Therefore we shall use the Contrast Method to estimate the Ionospheric distortion and to calculate a complex correction to modify the Ideal Reference Function in order to optimize the compressed signal

MARSIS Radar TEC estimation analysis

In this document, we describe a study to evaluate the possibility to a further improvement of the Total Electron Content of Mars’s Ionosphere using the outputs parameters produced by the Contrast Method algorithm used for the on-board and the on- ground processing of the MARSIS radar, in order to compensate the ionosphere distortions that affected the data collected by MARSIS in its subsurface operation mode

Marsis Radar: the Contrast Method Algorithm

It is well known that Mars does not possess an appreciable global magnetic field, by contrast to Earth, which has a strong geomagnetic field of core origin. In these conditions, the solar wind can directly interact with the Martian ionosphere and induce modifications of its local properties, producing a clear distinction between the day side and the night side ionosphere behaviors . This is mainly due to the fact that the day side is directly hit by solar EUV photons which ionize atmospheric neutrals. As a consequence, the use of a radar sounder to analyse the surface and subsurface of Mars, through the ionosphere, must deal with serious constraints, depending on the operative frequencies adopted. In this document, we describe the Contrast Method algorithm used for the on-board and the on- ground processing of the MARSIS radar, in order to compensate the distortions introduced by the Mars ionosphere on the data collected by MARSIS in its subsurface operation mode. We show the effects obtained with the Contrast Method in different environmental. The result is that, the presence of the Contrast Method in the processing pipeline has allowed the collection of relevant scientific data not only during the night side, but also during the day side, producing a substantial improvement of the data quality and the Mars coverage

Marsis Radar: Mars magnetic fields effects

Mars is characterized by the absence of an intrinsic magnetic field like the Earth, but the presence of local crustal magnetic fields can produce an interaction with the ionosphere producing negative effects on the radar signal propagation. Taking into account the Ionosphere Density profiles available in Mars’s literature [1]. and the observations of Mars from the Mars Global Surveyor (henceforth MGS), the purpose of this report is the evaluation of the magnetic fields impact on MARSIS and SHARAD signals

Marsis radar: ionosphere phase dispersion compensation

One of the main challenges that the Marsis radar (on-board the Mars Express Mission) needs to deal with are the effects introduced in an electromagnetic wave by the Mars ionosphere. According to the recent literature, the profile of the electron density and thus of the plasma frequency for increasing altitude raises sharply towards a single well-defined maximum located at an altitude of about 100-150 Km and then drops off smoothly as the altitude increases

Marsis Radar: geographical visualization tool requirements

The Geographical Visualization Tool (GVT) was designed in order to access different kind of information related to the mission and display them in different formats, with intensive graphical outputs. The aim of the application is that to be a data merging (fusion utility) to optimize the planning process and the scientific exploitation phase of MARSIS data. The design modularity should allow the addition of future functionalities particularly envisioning additional requirements from the science community and the requirements of forthcoming missions (like MRO/Sharad). The GVT can do also simple elaboration of the data before their graphical visualization. In conclusion, the GVT is a flexible and modular software that allows the utilization of other mission data