Software upgrade for MARSIS

The MARSIS radar instrument on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft is used to detect features such as water beneath the surface of Mars. It recently received a software upgrade that substantially improves its scientific performance. 

In this graphic, you can see the region on the surface of Mars studied using MARSIS during one pass over the region of Lunae Planum.

The software upgrade reduces the rate at which the instrument's onboard data storage fills up, allowing it to be switched on for much longer at a time and gather data on a much larger region with each pass.

The area that could be studied during one use of the instrument before the upgrade can be seen on the right. The area that can be studied during one use now is on the left.