Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.1505f&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #15.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.410
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Without the shielding of a strong intrinsic magnetic field, the Martian atmosphere directly interacts with the impacting solar wind. The neutral constituents of the atmospheric corona can be ionized, and then picked up and accelerated by the magnetic field and convection electric field in the solar wind. A significant fraction of pickup ions escape Mars’ gravitational pull and are lost to space. This nonthermal escape process of heavy species is an important mechanism responsible for atmospheric erosion. While there is a perception that the Martian magnetic anomaly pattern is significant for the ionospheric density distribution and the bow shock standoff location, little is known about the quantitative influence of the Martian crustal magnetic field on the global distribution of escaping pickup ions. In this work, we will apply a newly developed global test particle model to resolve the crustal field effect on the pickup oxygen ion distribution around Mars. The background magnetic and electric fields, in which test particles are followed, are calculated using a three-dimensional multi-species MHD model. The effect of the crustal magnetic field on particle escape is quantified by varying the crustal field configuration in the model setup and comparing the corresponding test particle simulation results. The comparison is made by turning on or off the crustal field or changing the orientation of the strong field from dayside to duskside. It is found that without the protection of the crustal magnetic field, the total amount of atmospheric escape through the ion pickup process would be enhanced by more than a factor of two. It is shown that the crustal magnetic field not only regionally deflects the solar wind around the Martian atmosphere, but also has an important global effect on atmospheric erosion and thus on long-term atmospheric evolution.
Fang Xiaohua
Liemohn Michael W.
Luhmann Janet G.
Nagy Andrew F.
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