Effects of a Solar Flare on the Martian Hot O Corona and Photochemical Escape

Lee, Yuni; Dong, Chuanfei; Pawlowski, Dave; Thiemann, Edward; Tenishev, Valeriy; Mahaffy, Paul; Benna, Mehdi; Combi, Michael; Bougher, Stephen; Eparvier, Frank

doi:10.1029/2018GL077732

Title: Effects of a Solar Flare on the Martian Hot O Corona and Photochemical Escape

Journal Article · Tue Jun 12 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Geophysical Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL077732· OSTI ID:1472014

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^[2]; Pawlowski, Dave ^[3];

^[4]; Tenishev, Valeriy ^[5];

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NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); GESTAR, Univ. Space Research Assoc., Columbia, MD (United States)
Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (United States)
Eastern Michigan Univ., Ypsilanti, MI (United States)
Univ. of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO (United States)
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD (United States)

Here, we examine for the first time the flare–induced effects on the Martian hot O corona. The rapid ionospheric response to the increase in the soft X–ray flux (~800%) facilitates more hot O production at altitudes below the main ionospheric peak, but almost all of these atoms are thermalized before escape. In response to the increase in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) flux (~170%), the overall upper ionospheric and thermospheric densities are enhanced, and the peak thermospheric responses are found ~1.5 hr later. The photochemical escape rate is predicted to increase by ~20% with the increases in the soft X–ray and EUV fluxes but decrease rapidly by ~13% about 2.5 hr later before recovering the preflare level. Since escaping hot O atoms are mostly produced at high altitudes where ionization by the EUV flux is the greatest, the main contributor to the 20% increase in escape rate is the enhancement in the EUV flux.

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Research Organization:: Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: This work was supported by NASA’s NGIMS/MAVEN investigation. Resources for all simulations were provided by NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS).; USDOE

OSTI ID:: 1472014

Journal Information:: Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 45, Issue 14; ISSN 0094-8276

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 14 works

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