Ionospheric Variations over the Hellas and Argyre Basins on Mars

Details Ionospheric Variations over the Hellas and Argyre Basins on Mars Ionospheric Variations over the Hellas and Argyre Basins on Mars

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufm.p31a0540l&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #P31A-0540

Physics

2459 Planetary Ionospheres (5435, 5729, 6026, 6027, 6028), 5435 Ionospheres (2459), 5440 Magnetic Fields And Magnetism, 6225 Mars

Scientific paper

The MGS Electron Reflectometer (ER) can determine when the spacecraft is in Mars' ionosphere or in the solar wind by detecting differences in the energy spectra of ionospheric photoelectrons and solar wind electrons. At the 400-km-altitude mapping orbit, the spacecraft makes numerous crossings of the ionopause (a plasma boundary separating the solar wind and the ionosphere) as it moves up and down in response to solar variability. Over regions in the northern hemisphere where crustal magnetic fields are too weak to influence the solar wind interaction, the ionopause is typically below the spacecraft but moves upward when the flux of ionizing radiation increases and/or the solar wind dynamic pressure decreases. In contrast, the crustal field over some regions of the southern hemisphere is strong enough to deflect the solar wind at altitudes well above the spacecraft, forming localized "magnetospheres." Magnetometer measurements obtained during aerobraking revealed very weak crustal magnetic fields over the Hellas and Argyre basins, which are both at similar latitudes in the southern hemisphere. However, ER data show that the ionopause is systematically higher over Hellas than over Argyre. We investigate the response of the ionosphere over Hellas and Argyre to solar variability and to the Martian seasons in an attempt to determine whether the increased ionopause altitude over Hellas is caused by weak but significant crustal fields within the basin or by seasonal effects.

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