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Title: Importance of Ambipolar Electric Field in Driving Ion Loss From Mars: Results From a Multifluid MHD Model With the Electron Pressure Equation Included

Abstract

The multi-fluid (MF) magnetohydrodynamic model of Mars is improved by solving an additional electron pressure equation. Through the electron pressure equation, the electron temperature is calculated based on the effects from various electron-related heating and cooling processes (e.g., photo-electron heating, electron-neutral collision, and electron-ion collision), and thus, the improved model can calculate the electron temperature and the electron pressure force terms self-consistently. Model results of a typical case using the MF with electron pressure equation included model are compared in detail to identical cases using the MF and multi-species models to identify the effect of the improved physics. Here, we find that when the electron pressure equation is included, the general interaction patterns are similar to those with no electron pressure equation. However, the MF with electron pressure equation included model predicts that the electron temperature is much larger than the ion temperature in the ionosphere, consistent with both Viking and Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) observations. Using our numerical model, we also examined in detail the relative importance of different forces in the plasma interaction region. All three models are also applied to a MAVEN event study using identical input conditions; overall, the improved model matches best withmore » MAVEN observations. All of the simulation cases are examined in terms of the total ion loss, and the results show that the inclusion of the electron pressure equation increases the escape rates by 50–110% in total mass, depending on solar condition and strong crustal field orientation, clearly demonstrating the importance of the ambipolar electric field in facilitating ion escape.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [3]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [6];  [6];  [7]; ORCiD logo [4]
  1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  2. Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  3. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  4. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Lab. for Atmospheric and Space Physics
  5. Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (United States)
  6. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  7. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
OSTI Identifier:
1648060
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-09CH11466; NNH10CC04C
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Geophysical Research. Space Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 124; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-9380
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Mars; multifluid MHD; ambipolar electric field; ion loss; electron energy equation

Citation Formats

Ma, Y. J., Dong, C. F., Toth, G., Holst, B., Nagy, A. F., Russell, C. T., Bougher, S., Fang, Xiaohua, Halekas, J. S., Espley, J. R., Mahaffy, P. R., Benna, M., McFadden, J., and Jakosky, B. M. Importance of Ambipolar Electric Field in Driving Ion Loss From Mars: Results From a Multifluid MHD Model With the Electron Pressure Equation Included. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1029/2019ja027091.
Ma, Y. J., Dong, C. F., Toth, G., Holst, B., Nagy, A. F., Russell, C. T., Bougher, S., Fang, Xiaohua, Halekas, J. S., Espley, J. R., Mahaffy, P. R., Benna, M., McFadden, J., & Jakosky, B. M. Importance of Ambipolar Electric Field in Driving Ion Loss From Mars: Results From a Multifluid MHD Model With the Electron Pressure Equation Included. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019ja027091
Ma, Y. J., Dong, C. F., Toth, G., Holst, B., Nagy, A. F., Russell, C. T., Bougher, S., Fang, Xiaohua, Halekas, J. S., Espley, J. R., Mahaffy, P. R., Benna, M., McFadden, J., and Jakosky, B. M. 2019. "Importance of Ambipolar Electric Field in Driving Ion Loss From Mars: Results From a Multifluid MHD Model With the Electron Pressure Equation Included". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019ja027091. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1648060.
@article{osti_1648060,
title = {Importance of Ambipolar Electric Field in Driving Ion Loss From Mars: Results From a Multifluid MHD Model With the Electron Pressure Equation Included},
author = {Ma, Y. J. and Dong, C. F. and Toth, G. and Holst, B. and Nagy, A. F. and Russell, C. T. and Bougher, S. and Fang, Xiaohua and Halekas, J. S. and Espley, J. R. and Mahaffy, P. R. and Benna, M. and McFadden, J. and Jakosky, B. M.},
abstractNote = {The multi-fluid (MF) magnetohydrodynamic model of Mars is improved by solving an additional electron pressure equation. Through the electron pressure equation, the electron temperature is calculated based on the effects from various electron-related heating and cooling processes (e.g., photo-electron heating, electron-neutral collision, and electron-ion collision), and thus, the improved model can calculate the electron temperature and the electron pressure force terms self-consistently. Model results of a typical case using the MF with electron pressure equation included model are compared in detail to identical cases using the MF and multi-species models to identify the effect of the improved physics. Here, we find that when the electron pressure equation is included, the general interaction patterns are similar to those with no electron pressure equation. However, the MF with electron pressure equation included model predicts that the electron temperature is much larger than the ion temperature in the ionosphere, consistent with both Viking and Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) observations. Using our numerical model, we also examined in detail the relative importance of different forces in the plasma interaction region. All three models are also applied to a MAVEN event study using identical input conditions; overall, the improved model matches best with MAVEN observations. All of the simulation cases are examined in terms of the total ion loss, and the results show that the inclusion of the electron pressure equation increases the escape rates by 50–110% in total mass, depending on solar condition and strong crustal field orientation, clearly demonstrating the importance of the ambipolar electric field in facilitating ion escape.},
doi = {10.1029/2019ja027091},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1648060}, journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research. Space Physics},
issn = {2169-9380},
number = 11,
volume = 124,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Oct 18 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Fri Oct 18 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

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Cited by: 15 works
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Figures / Tables:

Table 1 Table 1: Specific parameters and conditions applied to the cases performed in the study. Solar wind density, velocity and IMF conditions for case 4 are based on SWIA and MAG measurements during the inbound pass of orbit 451.

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