Premium
X rays from solar wind charge exchange at Mars: A comparison of simulations and observations
Author(s) -
Gunell H.,
Holmström M.,
Kallio E.,
Janhunen P.,
Dennerl K.
Publication year - 2004
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 - 10.1029/2004gl020953
Subject(s) - mars exploration program , solar wind , physics , charge exchange , atmosphere of mars , atmosphere (unit) , coronal mass ejection , observatory , polar wind , astrobiology , atmospheric sciences , computational physics , astronomy , ion , martian , plasma , meteorology , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics
A hybrid simulation of the solar wind‐Mars interaction and a test particle simulation of heavy ion trajectories near Mars are used to compute the contribution from solar wind charge exchange processes to the X‐ray emission from Mars. It is found that the X‐ray halo observed by the Chandra X‐ray observatory can be explained by emissions from heavy, highly charged, ions in the solar wind undergoing charge exchange collisions in the upper atmosphere of Mars.