Radar Sounding of Europas Subsurface: The View from Earth

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Radar Sounding of Europas Subsurface The View
from Earth
Radar Sounding of Europas Subsurface The View
from Earth
Donald Blankenship
Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at
Austin Jackson School of Geosciences
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Radar sounding of Earths ice sheets is routine
Radar sounding of Earths ice sheets is
routine (C41B, C41C, C51A, C52A sessions at this
meeting)
Ice Surface
South Pole Station
3 km
Bedrock
23 km
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Orbital radar sounding of Europa is
feasible(P52A, P53B sessions at this meeting)
Thin shell
Thick shell
Chyba et al., (1999) Blankenship et al (1999)
Moore (2000)
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Orbital radar sounding of Mars polar caps has
been successful
Orbital radar sounding of Mars polar caps has
been successful.. (P11B P14B P24A sessions at
this meeting)
1600 km
A. Safaeinili pers. comm
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Europa has inspired development of new radar
acquisition and imaging technologies.
Europa has inspired development of new radar
acquisition and imaging technologies.
1993
Surface scattering
2001
Water on bedrock resolved
(Peters et al. 2005, 2007)
New features seen with reduced scattering
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Radar can detect water-filled fractures beneath a
thin ice shell
Radar can detect water-filled fractures beneath a
thin ice shell - the Ross Ice Shelf (Blankenship
et al., 2001 Peters et al., 2005, 2007)
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Radar can detect water within an ice shell
Radar can detect water within an ice shell -
glacier in Svalbard (Bjornsson et al., 1996)
Ice
Water pockets
Bedrock
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Radar can detect basal processes beneath an ice
shell
Radar can detect basal processes beneath an ice
shell Subglacial Lake Vostok (Falola and Oliason,
2001 Studinger et al., 2003) See next speaker
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Earth analog studies will be essential for radar
sounding success at Europa
Earth analog studies will be essential for radar
sounding success at Europa
Byrd Glacier, Antarctica
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Option 1 Download the native .ppt file from the
Web release at http//www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/rels
/121307.html (see right side of page) Option 2
E-mail or call J.B. Bird, PIO at the Jackson
School of Geosciences, 512-750-3512,
jbird_at_jsg.utexas.edu. Please credit images to
the University of Texas Institute for
Geophysics/Jackson School of Geosciences unless
otherwise noted on the slide.