A search for radio impulses from dust-storm-induced lightning at Mars

Details A search for radio impulses from dust-storm-induced lightning at Mars A search for radio impulses from dust-storm-induced lightning at Mars

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p51d1151f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P51D-1151

Computer Science

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[0343] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Planetary Atmospheres, [3304] Atmospheric Processes / Atmospheric Electricity, [3324] Atmospheric Processes / Lightning, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars

Scientific paper

One of the more remarkable features of the Martian atmosphere is the sporadic appearance of intense dust storms. Recently, Ruf et al. (2009) reported the detection of non-thermal radiation from Mars that they attributed to lightning from a dust storm. Using the radio receiver of the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) aboard the Mars Express spacecraft, we perform a statistical search for radio impulses from lightning on several orbital passes over dust storms. The radio receiver covers the frequency range from 0.1 to 5.5 MHz in 160 channels with very high sensitivity, right down to the cosmic noise level, and time resolution of 100 μsec. In these samples, we search the background noise of a consecutive series of ionograms for anomalous increases in received intensity. Such increases in background noise intensity are indicative of an intense electrical discharge. The distribution of intensities we detect is that of a typical background distribution. We therefore report a null result: our sample yields no evidence of lightning strikes during Martian dust storms.

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