Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p11b1215b&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P11B-1215
Other
[5421] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Interactions With Particles And Fields, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars
Scientific paper
It has recently been proposed that atmospheric escape rates from unmagnetized planets increase during extreme space weather events. Increased escape rates can be caused by a number of different effects, including magnetospheric compression leading to increased atmospheric ionization rates by the solar wind, increased atmospheric ionization by solar energetic particles, and increased temperatures in the reservoirs for escape due to energy deposition by solar energetic particles leading to increases in thermal escape rates. Here we examine the energy deposition by solar energetic particles in the neutral upper atmosphere of Mars during solar storms. We use a test particle approach, tracking the motion of incident solar wind ions through a target upper atmosphere. We track the energy deposition by ions to the atmosphere using the range-energy relation, assuming that local energy deposition is always proportional to local column density. This approach omits the detailed physics of charged particle interactions with atmospheres, but is sufficient to approximate the likely influence of incident protons on the energetics of the Martian upper atmosphere during solar storms. Using these calculations we compare the energy deposition for different solar storms at Mars and for the Martian atmosphere during different seasons. We also examine the spatial variation in energy deposition altitude profiles near crustal magnetic fields. Finally, we compare the energy deposition altitude profiles from incident ions to those derived from other sources, including solar EUV.
Bougher Stephen W.
Brain David Andrew
Delory Gregory T.
Lillis Robert J.
Luhmann Janet G.
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