X rays from solar wind charge exchange at Mars:: A comparison of simulations and observations -: art. no. L22801

A hybrid simulation of the solar wind-Mars interaction and a test particle simulation of heavy ion trajectories near Mars are used to compute the contribution from solar wind charge exchange processes to the X-ray emission from Mars. It is found that the X-ray halo observed by the Chandra X-ray observatory can be explained by emissions from heavy, highly charged, ions in the solar wind undergoing charge exchange collisions in the upper atmosphere of Mars.