Martian corona: Nonthermal sources of hot heavy species

We have studied the production of hot O and C atoms, and hot CO 2 and CO molecules in the Martian upper atmosphere and exosphere by dissociative recombination (DR) of O 2 + and CO + ions, and sputtering of the atmosphere by incident O + pick‐up ions. Production and collisional thermalization of the hot particles in the upper atmosphere are described by using a unique Monte Carlo test particle approach to simulate both nonthermal processes. Velocity distributions, atmospheric loss rates, and density profiles are derived for suprathermal O, C, CO, and CO 2 at low and high solar activity. At high solar activity the hot oxygen escape rate estimated from DR of O 2 + is found to be less than two times the sputtering rate. Sputtering is found to efficiently populate the corona with molecular species such as CO and CO 2 at high solar activity and also to produce a carbon escape rate that is comparable to that derived from the major photochemical sources. Dissociation of CO 2 molecules by the impacting pick‐up ions flux are found to produce about 50% of the sputtered exospheric oxygen density at high solar activity. Collisions of the background atmospheric gas with hot O atoms produced by DR of O 2 + produce densities of hot CO 2 and CO molecules larger than 10 2 cm −3 for altitudes lower than 1000 km, at both high and low solar activity. Interestingly, the hot CO 2 density scale height is observed to be process dependent. The hot oxygen energy distributions associated with sputtering and DR near the exobase are also found to follow distinct decreasing energy laws. We suggest that the effects of the solar zenithal angle (SZA), crustal magnetic fields, and atmospheric tides on the ionospheric structure may produce exospheric signatures.