Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Feb 1990
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1990jgr....95..939l&link_type=abstract
Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 95, Feb. 1, 1990, p. 939-945.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
31
Atmospheric Models, Ion Temperature, Mars Atmosphere, Planetary Environments, Astronomical Models, Heavy Ions, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Magnetosheath, Solar Wind, Mars, Models, Ions, Exosphere, Pickup, Charged Particles, Energy, Spectra, Phobos, Source, Satellites, Sputtering, Magnetosheath, Phobos Mission, Aspera Instrument, Taus Instrument, Trajectories, Spacecraft Observations, Distribution
Scientific paper
Because Mars has a weak intrinsic magnetic field and a substantial atmosphere, instruments on orbiting spacecraft should detect a population of energetic heavy planetary ions which result from comet-like ion pickup in the solar wind and magnetosheath convection electric fields, in addition to those that might result from processes internal to a Martian 'magnetosphere.' Although this ion exosphere has been previously discussed in the literature, detailed predictions that might be directly applied to the interpretation of data are not available. Here a test particle model is used to construct a global picture of Martian pickup ions in the Mars environment. The model makes use of the recent Nagy and Cravens (1988) model of the Martian exosphere and Spreiter and Stahara's (1980) gas dynamic model of the magnetosheath. The pickup of ions originating at Phobos is also considered. Notable properties of the resulting ion distributions include their near-monoenergetic spectra, pancake pitch angle distributions, and large gyroradii compared to the planetary scale.
Luhmann Janet G.
Schwingenschuh Konrad
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