The Planetary Science Institute’s Associate Director and Senior Scientist Than Putzig, Senior Scientist Gareth Morgan, Senior Research Associate Fritz Foss and Research Scientist Matt Perry recently traveled to Bologna, Italy to participate in a Joint MARSIS and SHARAD Science Team Meeting. PSI Affiliate Engineer Fabrizio Bernardini, who serves as the SHARAD Operations Manager, also participated in the meeting.
MARSIS, short for Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding, is an instrument onboard the Mars Express orbiter that allows scientists to study the Martian ionosphere and visualize Mars’ subsurface within the first three miles of crust.
SHARAD, short for Shallow Radar, is an sounding instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, that also allows scientists to investigate Mars’ subsurface, but at shallower depths than MARSIS and at a finer resolution. Both instruments evaluate subsurface material properties, including efforts to identify water and ice.
Putzig serves as the U.S. and Deputy Team Leader for SHARAD, which was provided to MRO by the Italian Space Agency, who operate it through a contract to Team Leader Roberto Seu at the Sapienza University of Rome. Morgan and Perry are SHARAD Co-Investigators and Foss is a SHARAD Team Member, as are PSI Research Associates Megan Russell and Aaron Russell.
Morgan is also Principal Investigator on a project called 3-D Subsurface Imaging and Analysis of Glaciers and Lava Fields with SHARAD Data, which aims to reveal and characterize Martian glaciers and lava fields in new detail. Foss, Perry, Putzig, Megan Russell, as well as PSI Senior Scientist Matthew Chojnacki are Co-Investigators on this project.
Foss has been heavily involved in the development of 3D radar imaging at Mars, including earlier efforts led by Putzig to image the polar regions with SHARAD data and as the Principal Investigator on a project called 3D Subsurface Imaging and Analysis of the Martian Polar Regions with MARSIS Data.
Results from each of these projects and many others were presented at the meeting.
Putzig, Foss, and Perry also made time for some rest and recovery on either side of the meeting with visits to Venice and Florence.
