Correlation Between Solar Flux at Mars and Drag Experienced by Mars Global Surveyor

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The density of the Martian atmosphere varies principally due to solar forcing in the visible and IR part of the spectrum that varies as Mars moves in an elliptical orbit about the Sun. Solar UV and EUV emissions can heat the upper atmosphere and produce an ionosphere. Other photochemical effects include photodissociation and dissociative recombination. The atmospheric density varies also because of endogenic forcing from dust loading. This is moderately well understood at low altitudes, but the effect of dust loading on exospheric density has not been studied in detail. There exists a strong correlation between the computed solar EUV flux at Mars and exospheric drag, as calculated from MGS Doppler data. However, there are relatively long periods of time (greater than a week) during a Mars year where drag increases even though solar flux decreases, suggesting that, at times, endogenic forcing from dust can dominate the solar flux contribution to the control of atmospheric drag at orbital altitudes.

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