GEOmedia Special Issue in English 3-2019

by Guillermo Bosch

Radio Occultation (RO) is a well-proven technique that goes back to the mid 1960’s, when the satellite Mariner IV transmitted data while it was approaching Mars. In the moments as it disappeared behind the Red Planet, the transmitted signal, as viewed from Earth, passed through the thin Martian atmosphere, from its upper layers down to its surface. This represented history’s first inter-planetary atmospheric and ionospheric radio occultation experiment.

Minutes later, as the signal reappeared on the other side of Mars, the first rising radio occultation was observed from Earth.