Open AccessMars: A Richly Complicated Obstacle to the Solar Wind: Chapman Conference on the Solar Wind Interaction With Mars; San Diego, California, 22–25 January 2008
Author(s) -
Crider Dana H.,
Brain David A.,
Lundin Rickard
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2008eo230010
Subject(s) - mars exploration program , martian , astrobiology , solar wind , atmosphere of mars , dynamo , atmosphere (unit) , planet , atmospheric sciences , geology , physics , environmental science , geophysics , meteorology , astronomy , magnetic field , quantum mechanics
Although studies of the solar wind interaction with Mars (SWIM) date back to the mid‐1960s, whether Mars possessed a global magnetic field remained uncertain until 1997. We now know that Mars lacks a measurable dynamo; however, it has intense, localized regions of magnetization tied to its crust. With this patchy magnetic field, the solar wind interacts directly with the upper atmosphere of Mars, driving structural and compositional variations and providing energy for atmospheric escape to space. These processes may have played an important role in the long‐term evolution of the Martian climate.