P13D-06
MHD Model Results of Solar Wind Interaction with Mars and Comparison with MAVEN Plasma Observations
Monday, 14 December 2015: 14:55
2009 (Moscone West)
Yingjuan Ma1, Christopher T Russell2, Andrew F Nagy3, Xiaohua Fang4, Yaxue Dong4, Gabor Toth3, Jasper S Halekas5, John E P Connerney6, Jared R Espley6, Paul R Mahaffy6, Mehdi Benna6, James P McFadden7, David L Mitchell7 and Bruce Martin Jakosky4, (1)University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (2)University of California Los Angeles, IGPP/EPSS, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (3)University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (4)University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)University of Iowa, Physics and Astronomy, Iowa City, IA, United States, (6)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (7)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
Abstract:
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission (MAVEN), launched on November 18, 2013, is now in its primary science phase. The mission was designed to study the upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetosphere of Mars, the response to solar and solar-wind input, and the ability of atmospheric molecules and atoms to escape to space. In this study, we use a time-dependent MHD model to interpret plasma observations made by MAVEN particle and field instruments. Detailed comparisons between the model and the relevant plasma observations from MAVEN are presented for an entire Mars rotation under relatively quiet solar wind conditions. Through comparison along MAVEN orbits, we find that the time-dependent multi-species single-fluid MHD model is able to reproduce the main features of the plasma environment around Mars. Using the model results, we find that photoionization beyond the terminator is the dominant ion source as compared with day-night transport in maintaining the nightside ionosphere. Model results also show that both the time-varying solar wind conditions and the continuously rotating crustal field work together to control the ion escape variation with time.
