Stochastic models of hot planetary and satellite coronas: A hot oxygen corona of Mars

The processes of the kinetics and transport of hot oxygen atoms in the transition (between thermosphere and exosphere) region of the upper atmosphere of Mars are studied. The reaction of dissociative recombination of the main ionospheric ion O-2(+) with thermal electrons in the ionosphere of Mars is considered as a source of hot oxygen atoms. The distribution of suprathermal oxygen atoms by kinetic energy is calculated. It is shown that the exosphere is populated by a considerable number of suprathermal oxygen atoms with kinetic energies just below the escape energy of 2 eV; that is, a hot oxygen corona of Mars is formed.