Ricerc@Sapienza

Herein we present a super resolution and electromagnetic interference suppression technique based on Maximum Entropy Method and applied to data acquired by the SHAllow RADar (SHARAD) on board the NASA's 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission, currently operating on Mars. We show that the proposed algorithm allows to enhance signal-to-noise ratio by several decibels and the range resolution over a factor of three. Subsurface imaging is improved remarkably, allowing additional insights for the scientific community in the interpretation of the SHARAD radar data.

The presence of liquid water at the base of the martian polar caps has long been suspected but not observed. We surveyed the Planum Australe region using the MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) instrument, a low-frequency radar on the Mars Express spacecraft. Radar profiles collected between May 2012 and December 2015 contain evidence of liquid water trapped below the ice of the South Polar Layered Deposits.

Over the last decade, observations acquired by the Shallow Radar (SHARAD) sounder on individual passes of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed the internal structure of the Martian polar caps and provided new insights into the formation of the icy layers within and their relationship to climate. However, a complete picture of the cap interiors has been hampered by interfering reflections from off-nadir surface features and signal losses associated with sloping structures and scattering. Foss et al.