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MAVEN Observations of the Response of Martian Ionosphere to the Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections of March 2015
Author(s) -
Thampi Smitha V.,
Krishnaprasad C.,
Bhardwaj Anil,
Lee Yuni,
Choudhary R. K.,
Pant T. K.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1029/2018ja025444
Subject(s) - atmosphere of mars , coronal mass ejection , martian , ionosphere , atmosphere (unit) , interplanetary spaceflight , mars exploration program , physics , solar wind , atmospheric sciences , astrobiology , environmental science , astronomy , plasma , meteorology , quantum mechanics
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN spacecraft provides an opportunity to observe the response of the Martian upper atmosphere to the passage of interplanetary coronal mass ejections. We study the response of Martian ionosphere to two successive solar disturbances during 3 and 4 March and 8 and 9 March 2015 using the observations from Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer and Langmuir Probe and Waves aboard Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN. During these events, the ionospheric boundary was significantly lowered. During 3 March the ionopause is seen to be at a lower altitude, compared to that during 8 March. The higher ionopause seen on 8 March could be due to the sustained effect of heating and inflation by the 3 March interplanetary coronal mass ejection event or due to the heating by the enhanced particle precipitation. The comparison of the O + /O2 +ratio indicates that there is a preferential decrease of O2 +and a relative enhancement in O + , probably due to increased dissociative recombination and charge exchange as a result of the higher solar wind densities during the 3 March event.