Sharad

Sharad (Sanskrit: शरद्) is the early autumn season or ritu in the Hindu calendar. It roughly corresponds to the western months of mid-September to mid-November. Sharad is preceded by Varsha and followed by Hemant. The Hindu calendar contains six seasons (Vasant, Grishma, Varsha, Sharad, Hemant, Shishir) with two months each.

Sharad is characterized by clear skies, after three months of rains. Sharad Navratri, are the first nine auspicious days of the season, Sharad Purnima, the full moon day in the month of Ashwin, is celebrated as the day of divine Rasalila by Shri Krishna. That is the brightest full moon night of the year.

Sharad is also a Hindu name given to boys after the Sharad Purnima or full moon night festival. The name Sharad is also used among the Parsi diaspora in India and is found in parts of Iran as well.

References

SHARAD

SHARAD (Mars SHAllow RADar sounder) is a subsurface sounding radar embarked on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter probe. It complements the MARSIS instrument on Mars Express, providing lower penetration capabilities (some hundred meters) but much finer resolution (15 metres - untapered - in free space).

SHARAD is developed under the responsibility of the Italian Space Agency (ASI, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana), and provided to JPL for use on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Spacecraft in the frame of a NASA/ASI agreement which foresees exploitation of the data by a joint Italian/US team. The INFOCOM dept. of the University of Sapienza University of Rome is rensponsible for the whole mission, while Alcatel Alenia Space Italia (formerly Alenia Spazio) designed and built the instrument. SHARAD operations are managed by INFOCOM from the SHARAD Operation Centre (SHOC), located within the Alcatel Alenia Space facilities in the suburbs of Rome.

Science objectives

SHARAD is intended to map the first kilometer below the Mars surface, providing images of subsurface scattering layers with high vertical resolution (15 m), with the intent to locate water/ice/ deposits and to map the vertical structure of the upper subsurface layers.