Journal
ATMOSPHERE
Volume 11, Issue 5, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/atmos11050521
Keywords
Mars ionosphere; Mars thermosphere; tidal waves; ionosphere-thermosphere coupling
Funding
- NASA through the Mars Exploration Program
- Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades
- Agencia Estatal de Investigacion
- EC FEDER funds [RTI2018-100920-J-I00]
- State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa award [SEV-2017-0709]
- NASA [80NSSC19K0562]
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In order to further evaluate the behavior of ionospheric variations at Mars, we investigate the Martian ionosphere-thermosphere (IT) perturbations associated with non-migrating thermal tides using over four years of Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) in situ measurements of the IT electron and neutral densities. The results are consistent with those of previous studies, namely strong correlation between the tidal perturbations in electron and neutral densities on the dayside at altitudes -150-185 km, as expected from photochemical theory. In addition, there are intervals during which this correlation extends to higher altitudes, up to -270 km, where diffusive transport of plasma plays a dominant role over photochemical processes. This is significant because at these altitudes the thermosphere and ionosphere are only weakly coupled through collisions. The identified non-migrating tidal wave variations in the neutral thermosphere are predominantly wave-1, wave-2, and wave-3. Wave-1 is often the dominant wavenumber for electron density tidal variations, particularly at high altitudes over crustal fields. The Mars Climate Database (MCD) neutral densities (below 300 km along the MAVEN orbit) shows clear tidal variations which are predominantly wave-2 and wave-3, and have similar wave amplitudes to those observed.
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