MARSIS Active Ionosphere Sounding Data from Mars Express EXT3 Mission

The Mars Express MARSIS Active Ionospheric Sounder (AIS) full resolution data set includes all spectral information calibrated in units of spectral density for the Mars Express third extended mission, EXT3. The data set consists of a transmit frequency followed by a time series of spectral density measurements of the received power. Browse products contain a spectrogram overview plot and individual ionograms for each sounding activity.

Use Cases

• Modeling Martian ionospheric structure based on spectral density measurements.
• Analyzing signal propagation and attenuation in the Martian atmosphere based on received power time series.
• Creating visualizations of ionospheric activity based on the provided spectrogram and ionogram browse products.

Strengths

• Data is calibrated in units of spectral density.
• Includes browse products (spectrograms and ionograms) for each sounding activity.
• Covers the Mars Express third extended mission (EXT3).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the Mars Express MARSIS Active Ionospheric Sounder (AIS) instrument.

Time Range

Covers the Mars Express third extended mission (EXT3).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 18:25:47.170680; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Mars