Mars Global Surveyor Radio Science electron density profiles: Neutral atmosphere implications

Details Mars Global Surveyor Radio Science electron density profiles: Neutral atmosphere implications Mars Global Surveyor Radio Science electron density profiles: Neutral atmosphere implications

Aug 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001georl..28.3091b&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 28, Issue 16, p. 3091-3094

Physics

54

Planetology: Solid Surface Planets: Atmospheres-Structure And Dynamics, Planetology: Solid Surface Planets: Ionospheres, Planetology: Solar System Objects: Mars

Scientific paper

The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Radio Science (RS) experiment permits retrieval of electron density profiles versus height (~90-200 km) from occultation measurements. An initial set of electron profiles is examined spanning high northern latitudes, early morning solar local times and high solar zenith angles (78 to 81°) near aphelion. Sampling for these 32-profiles is well distributed over longitude. The height of the photochemically driven ionospheric peak is observed to respond to the background neutral density structure, with a mean height during this season at this location of ~134.4 km. Strong wave-3 oscillations about this mean are clearly observed as a function of longitude, and correspond to neutral density variations measured by the MGS Accelerometer (ACC) experiment. The wave-3 tidal pattern implicated by both the RS and ACC datasets is consistent with a semi-diurnal wave frequency. Clearly, the height of the martian dayside ionospheric peak is a sensitive indicator of the state of the underlying Mars atmosphere. This ionospheric peak height can be used as a proxy of the longitude specific non-migrating tidal variations present in the Mars lower thermosphere.

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