Optimization of the Antennas of the EISS Radar Designed to Perform Deep Martian Subsurface Sounding

The Electromagnetic Investigation of SubSurface (EISS) instrument has been designed to get information on the morphology and geological structure of the Martian subsurface and search for potential liquid water reservoirs. EISS is an impulse radar operating from the Martian surface at central frequen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing 2015-08, Vol.53 (8), p.4627-4637
Main Authors: Biancheri-Astier, Marc, Ciarletti, Valerie, Reineix, Alain, Le Gall, Alice
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antennas
Astrophysics
Current
deep sounding
Dipole antennas
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Electromagnetism
Engineering Sciences
ground-penetrating radar (GPR)
impedance
Instruments
loaded electrical antennas
Mars
Numerical models
optimization
Permittivity
Radar
Radar antennas
Sciences of the Universe
Space exploration
subsurface
wave propagation
Wu-King
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Summary:The Electromagnetic Investigation of SubSurface (EISS) instrument has been designed to get information on the morphology and geological structure of the Martian subsurface and search for potential liquid water reservoirs. EISS is an impulse radar operating from the Martian surface at central frequencies of a few megahertz in order to perform deep sounding of the subsurface. Particular attention has been paid to the design of the instrument's electrical antennas that need to transmit and receive the electromagnetic waves without distortion over the instrument's full frequency bandwidth (i.e, from 1 to 7 MHz). To fit into the mass and volume allocation, wire antennas made of identical loaded dipoles have been selected; they will be deployed on the surface by a mechanical mortarlike device. The resistive profile along the monopoles needs to be carefully chosen to ensure a proper behavior of the antenna once they are deployed on the surface. This paper deals with the performance of these electrical antennas and the optimization of their resistive profile. The study of the impact of the subsurface is performed on simulated data obtained by a numerical finite difference in time domain code. When available, experimental data show the good agreement with the theory. The studies performed show that a slightly suboptimal resistive profile will allow a correct operation of the instrument at the surface of Mars for any landing site.
ISSN:0196-2892
1558-0644
DOI:10.1109/TGRS.2015.2404356