Nah the reffing is worse <| sep |> Update Here ' s a lesstechnical Planetary Society blogblogs 20161122 s u b s u r f a c e w a t ericeinutopiaplanitiamars . html written by the first author Cassie Stuurman ucassiestuurman for anyone interested . And here ' s the original paper published in Geophysical Research LettersC . M . Stuurman et al . , SHARAD detection and characterization of subsurface water ice deposits in Utopia Planitia , Mars . Geophysical Research Letters . 43 , 94849491 2016 . Abstract Morphological analyses of Utopia Planitia , Mars , have led to the hypothesis that the region contains a substantial amount of nearsurface ice . This paper tests this hypothesis using groundpenetrating radar techniques . We have identified an expansive radar reflective region spanning approximately 375 , 000 km 2 in SHAllow RADar SHARAD data over western Utopia Planitia . The SHARAD reflective regions coincides with high densities of scalloped depressions and polygonal terrain . The reflectors are associated with layered mesas ∼ 80170 m thick . We find a value of 2 . 8 0 . 8 for the dielectric constant of the material overlying the reflectors . This work finds that the dielectric constant is consistent with a mixture of ice , air , and dust , containing a water ice volume up to 14 , 300 km 3 in this unit .