Spatial, Seasonal, and Solar Cycle Variations of the Martian Total Electron Content (TEC): Is the TEC a Good Tracer for Atmospheric Cycles?
| Autor: | Mikel Indurain, Beatriz Sánchez-Cano, Olivier Witasse, Álvaro Vicente-Retortillo, Francisco Gonzalez-Galindo, Marco Cartacci, Raffaella Noschese, Andrea Cicchetti, Pierre-Louis Blelly, Mark Lester |
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| Přispěvatelé: | Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie (IRAP), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France -Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Science and Technology Facilities Council (UK), European Space Agency, Europlanet Society, ITA, GBR, FRA, ESP |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Martian
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Total electron content TEC atmospheric coupling Ionosphere modeling Atmospheric sciences 01 natural sciences Solar cycle Atmospheric coupling Geophysics Space and Planetary Science Geochemistry and Petrology [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] TRACER 0103 physical sciences Mars express Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) Environmental science Mars thermosphere Mars Express Mars ionosphere 010303 astronomy & astrophysics ionosphere modeling 0105 earth and related environmental sciences |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 2018, 123, pp.1746-1759. ⟨10.1029/2018JE005626⟩ Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC instname |
| Popis: | This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. We analyze 10 years of Mars Express total electron content (TEC) data from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument. We describe the spatial, seasonal, and solar cycle behavior of the Martian TEC. Due to orbit evolution, data come mainly from the evening, dusk terminator and postdusk nightside. The annual TEC profile shows a peak at Ls = 25–75° which is not related to the solar irradiance variation but instead coincides with an increase in the thermospheric density, possibly linked with variations in the surface pressure produced by atmospheric cycles such as the CO or water cycles. With the help of numerical modeling, we explore the contribution of the ion species to the TEC and the coupling between the thermosphere and ionosphere. These are the first observations which show that the TEC is a useful parameter, routinely measured by Mars Express, of the dynamics of the lower-upper atmospheric coupling and can be used as tracer for the behavior of the thermosphere.©2018. The Authors. B. S. -C. and M. L. acknowledge support through STFC grant ST/N000749/1. ESA-ESTEC Faculty and Europlanet funding are also gratefully acknowledged. MEX MARSIS RDR and EDR data can be downloaded from the ESA-PSA archive, TIMED-SEE data at the University of Colorado's website (http://lasp.colorado.edu/lisird/index.html), REMS data at the NASA Planetary Data System (http://atmos.nmsu.edu/PDS/data/mslrem_1001/DATA/), the MCD model at the Mars Climate Database web interface (http://www-mars.lmd.jussieu.fr/mars/access.html), and the IPIM model at the IRAP CDPP web interface (http://transplanet.irap.omp.eu/). |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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