The precipitation of keV energetic oxygen ions at Mars and their effects during the comet Siding Spring approach

Comet Siding Spring C/2013 A1 will pass Mars on 19 October 2014, entailing particle and dust precipitation in the Martian upper atmosphere and a potential dust hazard for orbiters. An estimate of the ﬂux of energetic O+ ions picked up by the solar wind from the cometary coma is shown, with an increase of the O+ ﬂux above 50 keV by 2 orders of magnitude. While the ionization of Mars’ upper atmosphere by precipitating O+ ions is expected to be negligible compared to solar EUV-XUV ionization, it is of the same order of magnitude at 110 km altitude during the cometary passage, leading to detectable increases in ionospheric densities. Cometary O+ pickup ion precipitation is expected to be the major nightside ionization source, creating a temporary ionosphere and a global airglow. These effects are dependent on the solar and cometary activities at the time of the encounter.

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comet, Mars, O+, pickup

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10.1002/2014GL060902

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Gronoff, G, Rahmati, A, Simon Wedlund, C, Mertens, C J, Cravens, T E & Kallio, E 2014, 'The precipitation of keV energetic oxygen ions at Mars and their effects during the comet Siding Spring approach', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 41, no. 14, pp. 4844-4850. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL060902

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201808014341

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[article-cris] Sähkötekniikan korkeakoulu / ELEC

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The precipitation of keV energetic oxygen ions at Mars and their effects during the comet Siding Spring approach

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