Mars Lower Thermosphere Variability from Odyssey and MRO Aerobraking Measurements

During the aerobraking phases of the Mars Odyssey (MO) and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) missions, accelerometer measurements of total mass density at periapsis altitudes near 105 km were made in Mars' polar regions (> 75o latitude) during Northern Hemisphere winter (MO, Ls = 288-297) and Southern Hemisphere winter (MRO, Ls = 69-87). These measurements cover overlapping local times spanning nearly 8 hours. Prior to the local time transition, the MO and MRO accelerometers sample the high-latitude regions at nearly the same latitudes (70-85o) and same local times (1800-1900), and after the transition periapsis precesses relatively quickly (over roughly 20-30 sols) from 80o to 20o latitude in each hemisphere while keeping the local time constant near 0200-0300 LT. These observations offer the unprecedented opportunity to compare and contrast the behaviors of Mars' polar and middle latitude regions under similar geographic, altitude and local time conditions in the two hemispheres (albeit during different years), which is the focus of this paper. Particularly noteworthy are the slow (mostly eastward) migrations of longitudinal features in both MO and MRO data, which suggest modulations of non-migrating tides by planetary waves with periods of order 15-20 days.