NASA refines its radar for Venus over Iceland’s volcanoes

2023-09-20 13:41:24

An example from DLR airborne radar data shows an elevation change of several tens of meters around the volcanically active Litli-Hrútur volcano caused by the creation of new rock. Red indicates the largest change; blue, the minimum. -DLR

MADRID, 20 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Members of the international scientific team of NASA’s future VERITAS mission have traveled to Iceland to use the volcanic island as a substitute or analogue of Venus.

Specifically, the team has dedicated itself to test radar technologies that will help uncover the truth on the ground of the now inhospitable twin planet of Earth, NASA reports.

With its crushing atmospheric pressure, sulfuric acid clouds, and scorching surface temperature, Venus is an especially challenging place to study. But scientists know that looking at its surface It can provide key information about the habitability and evolution of rocky planets like ours.

To get a global perspective of Venus while staying high above its hellish atmosphere, NASA’s VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy) mission is scheduled to launch within a decade to study the surface of Venus. planet from orbit, discovering clues about the nature of its interior.

The VERITAS mission will rely on a next-generation synthetic aperture radar to create 3D global maps and a near-infrared spectrometer to distinguish between the main rock types on the surface of Venus. But to better understand what the spacecraft’s radar will “see” on the planet, the VERITAS science team would need to compare radar observations of Iceland’s terrain from the air with measurements taken on the ground.

During the first half of the campaign in Iceland in August, the VERITAS science team studied the Askja volcanic deposits and the Holuhraun lava field in the Icelandic Highlands, an active region featuring young rocks and recent lava flows. For the second half, they traveled to the volcanically active region of Fagradalsfjall on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland. The arid, rocky landscapes of both resemble the surface of Venus, which is believed to have been rejuvenated by active volcanism.

Flying in a plane from the German space agency, DLR, at 6,000 meters above the ground, synthetic aperture radar collected data in the X and S bands. The shorter wavelength of the It was used by NASA’s Magellan mission to map almost the entire surface of Venus in the early 1990s.

By observing the surface in both bands in Iceland, the scientific team will refine computer algorithms that will help VERITAS identify changes on the surface of Venus that have occurred since Magellan’s mission. Detecting changes in the last 40 years will allow them to identify key regions of geological activity –like active volcanoes- in Venus.