Radar images of the Moon at 6-meter wavelength

Vierinen, Juha; Tveito, Torbjørn; Gustavsson, B.; Kesaraju, Saiveena; Milla, Marco

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2017.06.035

Cited by 35 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…An example of such a band is shown in figure 3. This map is made by Vierinen et al (2017b) using data gathered by the Jicamarca radar facility, using a single interferometric antenna pair.…”

Section: Range-doppler Disambiguationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent study by Vierinen et al (2017b) provided a view of the lunar nearside at 6 meters, where both the specular and orthogonal-to-specular polarizations were recorded. This gives a view of the properties of both the surface and subsurface.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This gives a view of the properties of both the surface and subsurface. The long wavelength studies have identified two regions, 1) the Schiller-Zucchius basin and 2) the highlands around Montes Jura, which have anomalously low depolarized radar returns (Thompson et al, 2006;Vierinen et al, 2017b). The use of 230 MHz radar maps would be of interest in order to constrain the physical mechanism that causes this reduced return.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Planetary Radar Science Case for EISCAT 3D

Tveito¹,

Vierinen²,

Gustavsson³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. Ground-based inverse synthetic aperture radar is a tool that can provide insights into the early history and formative processes of planetary bodies in the inner Solar System. This information is gathered by measuring the scattering matrix of the target body, providing composite information about the physical structure and chemical makeup of its surface and subsurface down to the penetration depth of the radio wave. This work describes the technical capabilities of the upcoming 233 MHz EISCAT 3D radar facility for measuring planetary surfaces. Estimates of the achievable signal-to-noise ratios for terrestrial target bodies are provided. While Venus and Mars can possibly be detected, only the Moon is found to have sufficient signal-to-noise ratio to allow high resolution mapping to be performed. The performance of the EISCAT 3D antenna layout is evaluated for interferometric range-Doppler disambiguation and it is found to be well suited for this task, providing up to 20 dB of separation between Doppler north and south hemispheres in our case study. The low frequency used by EISCAT 3D is more affected by the ionosphere than higher frequency radars. The magnitude of the Doppler broadening due to ionospheric propagation effects associated with traveling ionospheric disturbances has been estimated.The effect is found to be significant, but not severe enough to prevent high resolution imaging. A survey of Lunar observing opportunities between 2022 and 2040 are evaluated by investigating the path of the sub-radar point when the Moon is above the local radar horizon. During this time, a good variety of look directions and Doppler equator directions are found, with observations opportunities available for approximately ten days every lunar month. EISCAT 3D will be able to provide new high quality polarimetric scattering map of the near-side of the Moon with a previously unused wavelength of 1.3 m, which provides a good compromise between radio wave penetration depth and Doppler resolution.

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Section: Range-doppler Disambiguationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Planetary Radar Science Case for EISCAT 3D

Tveito¹,

Vierinen²,

Gustavsson³

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…However, the radar is also highly capable of observing meteors entering the Earth's atmosphere (Pellinen-Wannberg et al, 2016), tracking orbital debris (Vierinen et al, 2019a), and even mapping the Moon (e.g. Thompson et al, 2016;Campbell, 2016;Vierinen et al, 2017b;Vierinen and Lehtinen, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radar observability of near-Earth objects using EISCAT 3D

et al. 2020

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Abstract. Radar observations can be used to obtain accurate orbital elements for near-Earth objects (NEOs) as a result of the very accurate range and range rate measureables. These observations allow the prediction of NEO orbits further into the future and also provide more information about the properties of the NEO population. This study evaluates the observability of NEOs with the EISCAT 3D 233 MHz 5 MW high-power, large-aperture radar, which is currently under construction. Three different populations are considered, namely NEOs passing by the Earth with a size distribution extrapolated from fireball statistics, catalogued NEOs detected with ground-based optical telescopes and temporarily captured NEOs, i.e. mini-moons. Two types of observation schemes are evaluated, namely the serendipitous discovery of unknown NEOs passing the radar beam and the post-discovery tracking of NEOs using a priori orbital elements. The results indicate that 60–1200 objects per year, with diameters D>0.01 m, can be discovered. Assuming the current NEO discovery rate, approximately 20 objects per year can be tracked post-discovery near the closest approach to Earth. Only a marginally smaller number of tracking opportunities are also possible for the existing EISCAT ultra-high frequency (UHF) system. The mini-moon study, which used a theoretical population model, orbital propagation, and a model for radar scanning, indicates that approximately seven objects per year can be discovered using 8 %–16 % of the total radar time. If all mini-moons had known orbits, approximately 80–160 objects per year could be tracked using a priori orbital elements. The results of this study indicate that it is feasible to perform routine NEO post-discovery tracking observations using both the existing EISCAT UHF radar and the upcoming EISCAT 3D radar. Most detectable objects are within 1 lunar distance (LD) of the radar. Such observations would complement the capabilities of the more powerful planetary radars that typically observe objects further away from Earth. It is also plausible that EISCAT 3D could be used as a novel type of an instrument for NEO discovery, assuming that a sufficiently large amount of radar time can be used. This could be achieved, for example by time-sharing with ionospheric and space-debris-observing modes.

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“…The primary mission for the E3D radar, which has largely defined the radar design, is atmospheric and ionospheric research. However, the radar is also highly capable of observing meteors entering Earth's atmosphere 80 2016), tracking orbital debris (Vierinen et al, 2019a), and even mapping the Moon (Thompson et al, 2016;Campbell, 2016;Vierinen et al, 2017b;Vierinen and Lehtinen, 2009, e.g.,).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Radar observability of near-Earth objects using EISCAT 3D

Kastinen¹,

Tveito²,

Vierinen³

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Radar observations can be used to obtain accurate orbital elements for near-Earth objects (NEOs) as a result of the very accurate range and range-rate measureables. These observations allow predicting NEO orbits further into the future, and also provide more information about the properties of the NEO population. This study evaluates the observability of NEOs with the EISCAT 3D high-power large-aperture radar, which is currently under construction. Three different populations are considered: NEOs passing by the Earth with a size distribution extrapolated from fireball statistics, catalogued NEOs 5 detected with ground-based optical telescopes, and temporarily-captured NEOs, i.e., minimoons. Two types of observation schemes are evaluated: serendipitous discovery of unknown NEOs passing the radar beam, and post-discovery tracking of NEOs using a priori orbital elements. The results indicate that 60-1200 objects per year with diameters D > 0.01 m can be discovered. Assuming the current NEO discovery rate, approximately 20 objects per year can be tracked post-discovery near closest approach. Only a marginally smaller number of tracking opportunities are also possible for the existing EISCAT UHF 10 system. The minimoon study, which used a theoretical population model, orbital propagation, and a model for radar scanning, indicates that approximately 7 objects per year can be discovered using 8-16% of the total radar time. If all minimoons had known orbits, approximately 80-160 objects per year could be tracked using a priori orbital elements. The results of this study indicate that it is feasible to perform routine NEO post-discovery tracking observations using both the existing EISCAT UHF radar and the upcoming EISCAT 3D radar. Most detectable objects are within 1 LD distance of the radar. Such observations 15 would complement the capabilities of the more powerful planetary radars that typically observe objects further away from Earth. It is also plausible that EISCAT 3D could be used as a novel type of an instrument for NEO discovery, assuming a sufficiently large amount of radar time can be used. This could be achieved, e.g., by time-sharing with ionospheric and space debris observing modes.

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Radar images of the Moon at 6-meter wavelength

Cited by 35 publications

References 27 publications

Planetary Radar Science Case for EISCAT 3D

Planetary Radar Science Case for EISCAT 3D

Radar observability of near-Earth objects using EISCAT 3D

Radar observability of near-Earth objects using EISCAT 3D

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