PUBLICATIONS Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets RESEARCH ARTICLE Electromagnetic signal penetration in a planetary soil 10.1002/2016JE005192 simulant: Estimated attenuation rates using GPR Key Points: and TDR in volcanic deposits on Mount Etna • GPR methodologies for evaluating the loss tangent of volcanic sediments S. E. Lauro1 , E. Mattei1 , B. Cosciotti1 , F. Di Paolo1 , S. A. Arcone2, M. Viccaro3,4 , • Characterization of electrical 1 properties of a planetary soil simulant and E. Pettinelli • Comparison between GPR and TDR 1 2 measurements Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma TRE, Rome, Italy, US Army ERDC-CRREL, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA, 3Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche Geologiche e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Catania, Catania, Italy, 4Osservatorio Etneo, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Catania, Italy Correspondence to: S. E. Lauro, Abstract Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a well-established geophysical terrestrial exploration method
[email protected] and has recently become one of the most promising for planetary subsurface exploration. Several future landing vehicles like EXOMARS, 2020 NASA ROVER, and Chang’e-4, to mention a few, will host GPR. A GPR Citation: survey has been conducted on volcanic deposits on Mount Etna (Italy), considered a good analogue for Lauro, S. E., E. Mattei, B. Cosciotti, F. Di Paolo, S. A. Arcone, M. Viccaro, and Martian and Lunar volcanic terrains, to test a novel methodology for subsoil dielectric properties estimation. E. Pettinelli (2017), Electromagnetic The stratigraphy of the volcanic deposits was investigated using 500 MHz and 1 GHz antennas in two different signal penetration in a planetary soil configurations: transverse electric and transverse magnetic.