The thickness of radar-bright deposits in Mercury's northern hemisphere from individual Mercury Laser Altimeter tracks

Hannah C.M. Susorney; Peter B. James; Catherine L. Johnson; Nancy L. Chabot; Carolyn M Ernst; Erwan M. Mazarico; Gregory A. Neumann; Mallory J Kinczyk

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2019.01.016

The thickness of radar-bright deposits in Mercury's northern hemisphere from individual Mercury Laser Altimeter tracks

Hannah C.M. Susorney, Peter B. James, Catherine L. Johnson, Nancy L. Chabot, Carolyn M Ernst, Erwan M. Mazarico, Gregory A. Neumann, Mallory J Kinczyk

School of Earth Sciences

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Abstract

The discovery of Mercury's radar-bright deposits has expanded our understanding of volatiles in the solar system. Key to deciphering the history and origin of the radar-bright deposits is an estimate of the volume of radar-bright material that in turn requires a measure of the average thickness of the deposits. In this study we investigate changes in topography across radar-bright deposits hosted in flat-floored, complex craters using individual edited Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) tracks. We compare the difference in heights of radar-bright regions and non-radar-bright regions of the crater floor and the difference of similarly sized and located regions in non-radar-bright craters and show that the two populations cannot be distinguished. The similarity of topography in these two sets of craters allows an upper limit of 15 m to be placed on the thickness of the radar-bright deposits.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	40-45
Number of pages	6
Journal	Icarus
Volume	323
Early online date	1 Feb 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2019.01.016
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2019

Keywords

Mercury
Polar deposits
Laser altimeter

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Accepted author manuscript, 18.6 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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@article{ab7ff9a001544ded8125556c37a22781,

title = "The thickness of radar-bright deposits in Mercury's northern hemisphere from individual Mercury Laser Altimeter tracks",

abstract = "The discovery of Mercury's radar-bright deposits has expanded our understanding of volatiles in the solar system. Key to deciphering the history and origin of the radar-bright deposits is an estimate of the volume of radar-bright material that in turn requires a measure of the average thickness of the deposits. In this study we investigate changes in topography across radar-bright deposits hosted in flat-floored, complex craters using individual edited Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) tracks. We compare the difference in heights of radar-bright regions and non-radar-bright regions of the crater floor and the difference of similarly sized and located regions in non-radar-bright craters and show that the two populations cannot be distinguished. The similarity of topography in these two sets of craters allows an upper limit of 15 m to be placed on the thickness of the radar-bright deposits.",

keywords = "Mercury, Polar deposits, Laser altimeter",

author = "Susorney, {Hannah C.M.} and James, {Peter B.} and Johnson, {Catherine L.} and Chabot, {Nancy L.} and Ernst, {Carolyn M} and Mazarico, {Erwan M.} and Neumann, {Gregory A.} and Kinczyk, {Mallory J}",

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doi = "10.1016/j.icarus.2019.01.016",

language = "English",

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T1 - The thickness of radar-bright deposits in Mercury's northern hemisphere from individual Mercury Laser Altimeter tracks

AU - Susorney, Hannah C.M.

AU - James, Peter B.

AU - Johnson, Catherine L.

AU - Chabot, Nancy L.

AU - Ernst, Carolyn M

AU - Mazarico, Erwan M.

AU - Neumann, Gregory A.

AU - Kinczyk, Mallory J

PY - 2019/5/1

Y1 - 2019/5/1

N2 - The discovery of Mercury's radar-bright deposits has expanded our understanding of volatiles in the solar system. Key to deciphering the history and origin of the radar-bright deposits is an estimate of the volume of radar-bright material that in turn requires a measure of the average thickness of the deposits. In this study we investigate changes in topography across radar-bright deposits hosted in flat-floored, complex craters using individual edited Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) tracks. We compare the difference in heights of radar-bright regions and non-radar-bright regions of the crater floor and the difference of similarly sized and located regions in non-radar-bright craters and show that the two populations cannot be distinguished. The similarity of topography in these two sets of craters allows an upper limit of 15 m to be placed on the thickness of the radar-bright deposits.

AB - The discovery of Mercury's radar-bright deposits has expanded our understanding of volatiles in the solar system. Key to deciphering the history and origin of the radar-bright deposits is an estimate of the volume of radar-bright material that in turn requires a measure of the average thickness of the deposits. In this study we investigate changes in topography across radar-bright deposits hosted in flat-floored, complex craters using individual edited Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) tracks. We compare the difference in heights of radar-bright regions and non-radar-bright regions of the crater floor and the difference of similarly sized and located regions in non-radar-bright craters and show that the two populations cannot be distinguished. The similarity of topography in these two sets of craters allows an upper limit of 15 m to be placed on the thickness of the radar-bright deposits.

KW - Mercury

KW - Polar deposits

KW - Laser altimeter

U2 - 10.1016/j.icarus.2019.01.016

DO - 10.1016/j.icarus.2019.01.016

M3 - Article (Academic Journal)

C2 - 31031414

SN - 0019-1035

VL - 323

SP - 40

EP - 45

JO - Icarus

JF - Icarus

ER -

The thickness of radar-bright deposits in Mercury's northern hemisphere from individual Mercury Laser Altimeter tracks

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