Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32722008›Full record

ReviewLife (Basel, Switzerland)2020

The Global Search for Liquid Water on Mars from Orbit: Current and Future Perspectives.

Roberto Orosei, Chunyu Ding, Wenzhe Fa, Antonios Giannopoulos, Alain Hérique, Wlodek Kofman, Sebastian E Lauro, Chunlai Li, Elena Pettinelli, Yan Su and 2 more

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Life (Basel, Switzerland), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Dielectric Properties of Water in Charged Nanopores.The journal of physical chemistry. B · 2022
    Article
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors.

Roberto OroseiIstituto di Radioastronomia, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Via Piero Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy.ORCID 0000-0003-1277-1294
Chunyu DingSchool of Atmosphere Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, 2 Daxue Road, Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai City 519000, China.ORCID 0000-0002-9405-6245
Wenzhe FaInstitute of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.ORCID 0000-0002-2969-5737
Antonios GiannopoulosSchool of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, Alexander Graham Bell Building, Thomas Bayes Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FG, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-7108-6997
Alain HériqueUniversité Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CNES, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France.ORCID 0000-0003-3699-883X
Wlodek KofmanUniversité Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CNES, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France.ORCID 0000-0002-6744-8796
Sebastian E LauroDipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-9839-1868
Chunlai LiKey Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China.ORCID 0000-0002-0817-2742
Elena PettinelliDipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-7066-6516
Yan SuKey Laboratory of Lunar and Deep Space Exploration, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China.ORCID 0000-0002-7946-2333
Shuguo XingPiesat Information Technology Co., Ltd, Beijing 100195, China.ORCID 0000-0002-7502-6876
Yi XuState Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology, Avenida Wai Long, Taipa, Macau.ORCID 0000-0001-8894-525X

Funding

Agenzia Spaziale Italiana ASI-INAF 2019-21-HH.0Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales N/AFundo para o Desenvolvimento das Ciências e da Tecnologia 0089/2018/A3
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Due to its significance in astrobiology, assessing the amount and state of liquid water present on Mars today has become one of the drivers of its exploration. Subglacial water was identified by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) aboard the European Space Agency spacecraft Mars Express through the analysis of echoes, coming from a depth of about 1.5 km, which were stronger than surface echoes. The cause of this anomalous characteristic is the high relative permittivity of water-bearing materials, resulting in a high reflection coefficient. A determining factor in the occurrence of such strong echoes is the low attenuation of the MARSIS radar pulse in cold water ice, the main constituent of the Martian polar caps. The present analysis clarifies that the conditions causing exceptionally strong subsurface echoes occur solely in the Martian polar caps, and that the detection of subsurface water under a predominantly rocky surface layer using radar sounding will require thorough electromagnetic modeling, complicated by the lack of knowledge of many subsurface physical parameters. Higher-frequency radar sounders such as SHARAD cannot penetrate deep enough to detect basal echoes over the thickest part of the polar caps. Alternative methods such as rover-borne Ground Penetrating Radar and time-domain electromagnetic sounding are not capable of providing global coverage. MARSIS observations over the Martian polar caps have been limited by the need to downlink data before on-board processing, but their number will increase in coming years. The Chinese mission to Mars that is to be launched in 2020, Tianwen-1, will carry a subsurface sounding radar operating at frequencies that are close to those of MARSIS, and the expected signal-to-noise ratio of subsurface detection will likely be sufficient for identifying anomalously bright subsurface reflectors. The search for subsurface water through radar sounding is thus far from being concluded.

Indexed as

habitabilityspace missionsspace technologies

Identifiers

PMID32722008
PMCPMC7460233

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.