Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 40, Issue 23, Pages 6028-6032Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2013GL058154
Keywords
solar forcing of Mars; ionospheric ion escape; solar cycle effects on Mars
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Funding
- Swedish National Space Board
- CNRS in France
- NASA [NASW00003]
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Solar cycle effects on the escape of planetary ions from Mars are investigated using Mars Express Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms 3 data from June 2007 to January 2013. Average and median tail fluxes of low-energy (<300eV) heavy ions (O+, O-2(+)), derived from the full data set covering 7900 orbits, are highly correlated with the solar activity proxies F-10.7 and the sunspot number, Ri. The average heavy ion escape rate increased by a factor of approximate to 10, from approximate to 110(24)s(-1) (solar minimum) to approximate to 110(25)s(-1) (solar maximum). Combining data from this, and other studies, an empiric model/expression is derived for the Martian escape rate versus solar activity F-10.7 and Ri. The model is a useful tool to derive the accumulated ion escape rate from Mars based on historical records of solar activity, with potentials back to the young Sun epoque.
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