Assessing the Effects of Induced Field Rotation on Water Ice Detection of Tianwen-1 Full-Polarimetric Mars Rover Penetrating Radar

Abstract

China’s first Mars probe Tianwen-1 has successfully landed on the southern Utopia Planitia of Mars on May 15, 2021. The Zhurong rover is first equipped with a full-polarimetric Mars Rover Penetrating Radar (FP-RoPeR) system, aiming to map the subsurface fine structure and to find the potential underground water ice. However, different from the previous water ice detection of orbital radar, the FP-RoPeR signals will be affected by the induced field rotation (IFR) if electromagnetic (EM) waves propagate through rough interfaces. Therefore, in this article, we assess the IFR effects from rough interfaces on the circular polarization ratio (CPR) response of FP-RoPeR data, which is a significant parameter for water ice detection. The theoretical computation and numerical validation indicate that the depth, the number of rough interfaces, and relative permittivity are three vital parameters that affect the IFR effects; depth plays a more important role than the other two for FP-RoPeR system. The CPR estimation result will be with greater error in the shallow region (0–1 m). The relative error in the region of depth greater than 1 m can be guaranteed to be under 10%.