Global Pickup Oxygen Ion Precipitation in the Martian Thermosphere: Distributions, Effects, and Implications

Details Global Pickup Oxygen Ion Precipitation in the Martian Thermosphere: Distributions, Effects, and Implications Global Pickup Oxygen Ion Precipitation in the Martian Thermosphere: Distributions, Effects, and Implications

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsa11a..01f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SA11A-01

Physics

Plasma Physics

[0343] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Planetary Atmospheres, [2455] Ionosphere / Particle Precipitation, [3354] Atmospheric Processes / Precipitation, [7807] Space Plasma Physics / Charged Particle Motion And Acceleration

Scientific paper

We apply a coupled set of 3-D numerical models to study the global aeronomical effects of precipitating pickup oxygen ions in the Martian thermosphere. While atmospheric constituents can be ionized, picked up, and then stripped away by the solar wind, a majority of pickup ions are directed by the electromagnetic fields to the planet and then deposit their energy in and sputter neutrals out of the thermosphere. A MHD field-based Monte Carlo pickup ion transport model is applied in this study with billions of test particles, allowing for the calculation of the detailed incident energy spectra and angular distributions of the return oxygen ion flux. More importantly, such detailed information is obtained globally, avoiding the errors arising from global averaging and thus enabling an unprecedented examination of the differences of particle impact between in the dayside and the nightside, within and outside of crustal magnetic anomaly regions. While accelerated return particles represent a significant energy source to the neutral atmosphere at Mars, their aeronomical effects are not included in any global models, which may lead to a serious problem with our understanding of the thermosphere and ionosphere. In this work, the associated sputtering loss and heating effects will be incorporated into the Mars Thermosphere General Circulation Model (MTGCM) to analyze for the first time the response of the thermosphere in a global perspective. The combination of these models allows for a quantitative assessment of the global impact of return pickup ions on the compositional and thermal structures of the thermosphere. The examination of particle impact under extreme solar wind and solar radiation conditions provides physical insight into the processes involved in the Mars-solar wind interaction and their implications on the Martian thermosphere and ionosphere.

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