Enhanced atmospheric oxygen outflow on Earth and Mars driven by a corotating interaction region

Details Enhanced atmospheric oxygen outflow on Earth and Mars driven by a corotating interaction region Enhanced atmospheric oxygen outflow on Earth and Mars driven by a corotating interaction region

Mar 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012jgra..11703208w&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 117, Issue A3, CiteID A03208

Physics

Magnetospheric Physics: Planetary Magnetospheres (5443, 5737, 6033), Magnetospheric Physics: Solar Wind Interactions With Unmagnetized Bodies, Magnetospheric Physics: Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets: Magnetospheres (2756), Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Mars

Scientific paper

Solar wind controls nonthermal escape of planetary atmospheric volatiles, regardless of the strength of planetary magnetic fields. For both Earth with a strong dipole and Mars with weak remnant fields, the oxygen ion (O+) outflow has been separately found to be enhanced during corotating interaction region (CIR) passage. Here we compared the enhancements of O+ outflow on Earth and Mars driven by a CIR in January 2008, when Sun, Earth, and Mars were approximately aligned. The CIR propagation was recorded by STEREO, ACE, Cluster, and Mars Express (MEX). During the CIR passage, Cluster observed enhanced flux of upwelling oxygen ions above the Earth's polar region, while MEX detected an increased escape flux of oxygen ions in the Martian magnetosphere. We found that (1) under a solar wind dynamic pressure increase of 2-3 nPa, the rate of increase in Martian O+ outflow flux was 1 order higher than those on Earth; and (2) as a response to the same part of the CIR body, the rate of increase in Martian O+ outflow flux was on the same order as for Earth. The comparison results imply that the dipole effectively prevents coupling of solar wind kinetic energy to planetary ions, and the distance to the Sun is also crucially important for planetary volatile loss in our inner solar system.

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