P21A-2067
MAVEN observations of atmospheric waves in the Martian upper atmosphere
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Scott England1, Guiping Liu1, Erdal Yigit2, Paul R Mahaffy3, Meredith K Elrod3, Mehdi Benna3 and Paul Withers4, (1)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (2)George Mason University Fairfax, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Fairfax, VA, United States, (3)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (4)Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
Abstract:
Atmospheric waves are known to be a source of substantial perturbations in the upper atmosphere of Mars, and their interaction with the mean flow is believed to cause significant changes in the background temperature and circulation. As such, understanding atmospheric waves, their variations with season, local time and location, and their impacts on the atmosphere is a key component of understanding the current state of the Martian upper atmosphere. Evidence of both small and large-scale atmospheric waves has been previously seen in observations of density, pressure, temperature and electron density at Mars. The Neutral Gas Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) instrument onboard the MAVEN spacecraft is able measure the density of multiple different atmospheric species in situ at high temporal resolution. This unique dataset offers the ability to study the impacts of atmospheric waves on major and minor constituents, and reveal their impacts on the background atmosphere. Analysis of NGIMS data in the 150-250 km altitude region will be presented. The properties of atmospheric wave structures, their relation to the background atmospheric properties and their variations with time and location will be analyzed. Constraints on the nature and intrinsic characteristics of these waves will be presented.
