Modeling Ionization, Electron-Ion Recombination, and Vertical Diffusion in an Isothermal Martian Ionosphere

Details Modeling Ionization, Electron-Ion Recombination, and Vertical Diffusion in an Isothermal Martian Ionosphere Modeling Ionization, Electron-Ion Recombination, and Vertical Diffusion in an Isothermal Martian Ionosphere

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsa13a1875h&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SA13A-1875

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

[2447] Ionosphere / Modeling And Forecasting, [5435] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Ionospheres

Scientific paper

We have recently shown [Huestis, et al., Faraday Discuss. 147, 307 (2010)] that the altitude profiles of CO2+(B2Σu+→X2Πg) and CO(a3Π→X1Σ+) Martian ultraviolet dayglow emissions above 130 km follow the altitude profile of ambient CO2, reflecting the temperature of the neutral atmosphere. In contrast, the O(1S→3P) ultraviolet dayglow emissions above 130 km follow the altitude dependence of ion-electron recombination in the Mars ionosphere, reflecting the square of the electron density. Thus Mars dayglow and radio science ionospheric occultation measurements return strongly correlated information. The high-altitude O(1S) dayglow emissions teach us about the topside ionosphere plasma scale height and temperature, while the CO2+(B2Σu+) and CO(a3Π) dayglow emissions teach us about the altitude profile of the primary ionizable atmospheric constituent, CO2. Relatively few Mars missions have included spectrometers capable of recording ultraviolet dayglow emissions, while every Mars orbiter or near-flyby mission implicitly records information about the electron density altitude profile in the Mars ionosphere by refraction and time delay just before radio transmission to Earth is blocked by the planet body and just after it becomes unblocked. Here we report development of a parameterized analytical model of the time and altitude variation of the electron density in Mars ionosphere based on a new eigen-solution expansion. We outline analytical and numerical mathematical formulas, tools, and procedures for systematic automated analysis and fitting of electron density altitude profiles as functions of Mars astronomical variables: solar zenith angle, solar activity, and heliocentric distance. The primary targeted dataset is the several thousands of electron density altitude profiles recorded by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) orbiter archived in the Planetary Data System (PDS).

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