A model of the energetic ion environment of Mars
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles (United States)
- Austrian Space Research Inst., Graz (Austria)
Because Mars has a weak intrinsic magnetic field and a substantial atmosphere, instruments on orbiting spacecraft should detect a result from comet-like ion pickup in the solar wind and magnetosheath convection electric fields, in addition to those that might result from processes internal to a Martian magnetosphere. Although this ion exosphere has been previously discussed in the literature, detailed predictions that might be directly applied to the interpretation of data are not available. Here a test particle model is used to construct a global picture of Martian pickup ions in the Mars environment. The model makes use of the recent Nagy and Cravens (1988) model of the Martian exosphere and Spreiter and Stahara's (1980) gas dynamic model of the magnetosheath. The pickup of ions originating at Phobos is also considered. Notable properties of the resulting ion distributions include their near-monoenergetic spectra, pancake pitch angle distributions, and large gyroradii compared to the planetary scale.
- OSTI ID:
- 5029429
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Vol. 95:A2; ISSN 0148-0227
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
MARS PLANET
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
ELECTRIC FIELDS
HEAVY IONS
INTERACTIONS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES
PLANETARY MAGNETOSPHERES
SOLAR WIND
ATMOSPHERES
CHARGED PARTICLES
IONS
PLANETS
SOLAR ACTIVITY
640107* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Planetary Phenomena