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Seasonal variability of Martian ion escape through the plume and tail from MAVEN observations
Author(s) -
Dong Y.,
Fang X.,
Brain D. A.,
McFadden J. P.,
Halekas J. S.,
Connerney J. E. P.,
Eparvier F.,
Andersson L.,
Mitchell D.,
Jakosky B. M.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2016ja023517
Subject(s) - extreme ultraviolet lithography , martian , plume , mars exploration program , extreme ultraviolet , irradiance , atmospheric escape , solar wind , environmental science , atmosphere of mars , atmospheric sciences , physics , interplanetary spaceflight , ion , flux (metallurgy) , astrobiology , plasma , chemistry , meteorology , optics , laser , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics
We study the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft observations of Martian planetary ion escape during two time periods: 11 November 2014 to 19 March 2015 and 4 June 2015 to 24 October 2015, with the focus on understanding the seasonal variability of Martian ion escape in response to the solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) flux. We organize the >6 eV O + ion data by the upstream electric field direction to estimate the escape rates through the plume and tail. To investigate the ion escape dependence on the solar EUV flux, we constrain the solar wind dynamic pressure and interplanetary magnetic filed strength and compare the ion escape rates through the plume and tail in different energy ranges under high and low EUV conditions. We found that the total >6 eV O + escape rate increases from 2 to 3 × 10 24 s −1 as the EUV irradiance increases by almost the same factor, mostly on the <1 keV tailward escape. The plume escape rate does not vary significantly with EUV. The relative contribution from the plume to the total escape varies between ~30% and ~20% from low to high EUV. Our results suggest that the Martian ion escape is sensitive to the seasonal EUV variation, and the contribution from plume escape becomes more important under low EUV conditions.