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Retrieval of CO 2 and N 2 in the Martian thermosphere using dayglow observations by IUVS on MAVEN
Author(s) -
Evans J. S.,
Stevens M. H.,
Lumpe J. D.,
Schneider N. M.,
Stewart A. I. F.,
Deighan J.,
Jain S. K.,
Chaffin M. S.,
Crismani M.,
Stiepen A.,
McClintock W. E.,
Holsclaw G. M.,
Lefèvre F.,
Lo D. Y.,
Clarke J. T.,
Eparvier F. G.,
Thiemann E. M. B.,
Chamberlin P. C.,
Bougher S. W.,
Bell J. M.,
Jakosky B. M.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2015gl065489
Subject(s) - thermosphere , atmosphere of mars , mars exploration program , martian , atmosphere (unit) , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , northern hemisphere , southern hemisphere , aeronomy , latitude , atmospheric temperature , astrobiology , physics , ionosphere , meteorology , astronomy
We present direct number density retrievals of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and molecular nitrogen (N 2 ) for the upper atmosphere of Mars using limb scan observations during October and November 2014 by the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph on board NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft. We use retrieved CO 2 densities to derive temperature variability between 170 and 220 km. Analysis of the data shows (1) low‐mid latitude northern hemisphere CO 2 densities at 170 km vary by a factor of about 2.5, (2) on average, the N 2 /CO 2 increases from 0.042 ± 0.017 at 130 km to 0.12 ± 0.06 at 200 km, and (3) the mean upper atmospheric temperature is 324 ± 22 K for local times near 14:00.