Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 46, Issue 21, Pages 11689-11697Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1029/2019GL084919
Keywords
Mars; photoelectron; crustal field; pitch angle distribution; MAVEN; wave-particle interaction
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Funding
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) [NNX16AQ04G]
- NASA through the Mars Exploration Program
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Multiple studies have reported either isotropic or trapped pitch angle distributions of high-energy (>100 eV) electrons on closed crustal field lines on the dayside of Mars. These pitch angle distributions are not to be expected from collisional scattering and conservation of adiabatic invariants alone. We use 2 years of data from the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission to analyze the pitch angle distributions of superthermal electrons on dayside-closed crustal magnetic fields and compare to results from an electron transport model. Low-energy electrons (10-60 eV) have pitch angle distributions in agreement with modeling results, while high-energy electrons (100-500 eV) do not. High-energy electrons have a flux peak at perpendicular pitch angles which suggests there is a ubiquitous energization process occurring on crustal fields. Wave-particle interactions seem to be the most likely candidate. Trapping of high-energy electrons may impact the nightside ionosphere dynamics.
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