火星是近年来深空探测的热点,对火星电离层的观测和研究是火星探测的主要内容之一.欧洲航天局2003年发射了火星探测器“火星快车”,它所搭载的下视雷达MARSIS(火星地表和电离层探测雷达)为火星电离层探测提供了大量数据,文章简单介绍了利用MARSIS探测火星电离层的基本原理,探测数据的结构和利用这些探测数据进行电离层研究的现状.
The first Martian mission of the European Space Agency, Mars Express, was launched on 2 June 2003. During its normal scientific phase, a low frequency topside radio wave sounder (MARSIS) on board Mars Express probed the Martian ionosphere and collected a vast amount of data. We provide a brief review of the fundamental principles of Martian ionosphere detection based on MARSIS, the structure of the data, and current research results obtained from the data.