Impact of the September 2017 Solar Flare and ICME Events on Mars
Abstract
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission observed a strong X-class solar flare impacting Mars on 10 September 2017, followed by a fast interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME). These solar events provide a great opportunity to advance our understanding of space weather events and their impact on Mars. In this study, the impact of the solar flare and ICME events on the Martian system is examined in detail using a sophisticated multi-species global MHD model. We found that the main features of the interaction can be reasonably captured by the model for both the solar flare and the ICME events. The results of the MHD model coupled with Mars Global Ionosphere-Thermosphere Model (MGITM) reproduce the density enhancement caused by the solar flare, consistent with MAVEN observations. Using derived solar wind proxy, our time-dependent run of the ICME event is able to reproduce some detailed structures observed by MAVEN. Our calculations show that the solar flare has an important impact on the ionosphere and the upper atmosphere, but has little effect at the solar wind-Mars interaction. In contrast, the ICME greatly disturbs the plasma enviorment of Mars, especially the induced magnetosphere. The ICME-driven distrubances include variations of various plasma boundaries and large enhancement of atmospheric erosion.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.P51H2970M
- Keywords:
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- 2437 Ionospheric dynamics;
- IONOSPHEREDE: 2459 Planetary ionospheres;
- IONOSPHEREDE: 5435 Ionospheres;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETSDE: 5443 Magnetospheres;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETS