1,1,2,1,- 1IPAG/CNRS, Institut de Planetologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, Grenoble cedex 9, France (wlodek.kofman@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr)
- 2Centrum Badan Kosmicznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk (CBK PAN), PL-00–716 Warsaw, Bartycka 18A, Poland
- 3Univ. of Texas at Austin Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Austin TX, USA
The ESA’s JUICE and the NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecrafts will jointly operate in orbit around Jupiter. This will start in 2031 when JUICE is inserted into the Jovian system, and end in 2034 when it is inserted into a Ganymede orbit.
The science payload of both missions includes a radar sounder operating at around 9 MHz’s. The Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) on JUICE and the Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) on Europa Clipper. If RIME and REASON transmit and listen to each other, plasma between the two spacecrafts could be detected and measured from this induced distortion affecting the radar signals. This type of joint measurement has been recommended by the Juice-Clipper Steering Committee supported by ESA and NASA. We report on two opportunities where such a joint measurement could be achieved at the Europa’s ionosphere. On July 16, 2032, Europa Clipper will flyby Europa first, and then, less than four hours later JUICE will follow. The two probes will be as close as 50,000 km from each other. Europa is in the line of sight of JUICE and Clipper for about three-quarters of an hour after the first flyby and for other three-quarters of an hour before the second one. This means there are two opportunities to see the Europa’s ionosphere.
The purpose of this poster is to evaluate the feasibility of active bistatic measurement, whereby RIME transmits and REASON receives the radar signal after propagation throughout the Europa ionosphere. Radar signal delay and dispersion are modelled, taking into account signal propagation between the two probes and geometry using Spice and Europa's ionosphere model. The study explores the potential for measuring ionospheric parameters using delayed and distorted signals.
A pure passive mode is also evaluated using a radar that measures Jovian emissions after propagation throughout the ionosphere. At the same time, a second radar measures an undistorted reference.
How to cite: Herique, A., Kofman, W., Grima, C., Zine, S., Rogez, Y., and Blankenship, D.: Probing Europa Ionosphere during Juice/Clipper joint operations in July 2034 with RIME / REASON bistatic measurement? , EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025, Helsinki, Finland, 7–12 Sep 2025, EPSC-DPS2025-754, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc-dps2025-754, 2025.
