The Martian Ionosphere as seen by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding
Abstract
The Mars Express spacecraft, inserted into Mars orbit on 25 December 2003, has on board a dual-mode radar sounder, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS), which was commissioned for service in August 2005. From that time to the present, MARSIS in Active Ionospheric Sounding mode (AIS) has collected over 1 million soundings of the Martian ionosphere on approximately 9000 orbits. These soundings have sampled both day- and nightside ionospheres, during times of solar activity and quiet, and during the various Martian seasons. In this presentation, we shall discuss both important past results and ongoing and projected work. We shall describe how MARSIS electron density profiles can be incorporated with particle precipitation models on the nightside in regions of inhomogeneous crustal magnetic field to better describe observed electron precipitation, generation of Martian aurora, and the formation of the nightside ionosphere. We shall see how MARSIS electron density profiles register the effects of increasing solar activity as we approach the peak of the present solar cycle. Finally, we will show how the ability of MARSIS to sample the plasma frequency in situ can be used to search for plasma escaping the ionosphere of Mars.
- Publication:
-
39th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012cosp...39.1276M