Turbulence in the Martian Atmosphere from Mars Express Radar Sounding

Details Turbulence in the Martian Atmosphere from Mars Express Radar Sounding Turbulence in the Martian Atmosphere from Mars Express Radar Sounding

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p51b1413m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P51B-1413

Physics

3379 Turbulence (4490), 5405 Atmospheres (0343, 1060), 5435 Ionospheres (2459), 6225 Mars, 6952 Radar Atmospheric Physics (1220)

Scientific paper

The MARSIS ionospheric sounder aboard the ESA spacecraft Mars Express yields a measurement of the peak plasma frequency, and therefore, the peak electron density of the Martian ionosphere, to a precision of about two percent. It is therefore a good index of plasma variations in the Martian ionosphere at frequencies less than the Nyquist frequency, about 0.07 Hz. Similarly, the peak altitude, computed by inverting ionospheric traces to get electron density profiles, can be used to index vertical variation in the Martian ionosphere. Finally, we can use the electron density profiles to obtain the variation of the density at a given altitude. We have chosen to make this computation at an altitude of 200 km. Using about 300 orbits for which we have continuous data near periapsis, we have done spectral analyses of the wave power in these quantities and have then fit the resulting spectra to a power law. For all of the above named quantities, the power law index is distributed between -2.0 and 0.0, with a strong maximum at a value slightly more negative than -5/3, the value of the index typical of Kolmogorov turbulence. Thus, we conclude that the Martian ionosphere and atmosphere are partially dominated by isotropic incompressive turbulence.

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