Space Weather on the Surface of Mars

The surface of Mars, unlike Earth, is directly exposed to Space Weather as a result of it's lack of a global magnetic field and thin atmosphere. The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) on the Mars Science Laboratory(MSL) has been characterizing the Space Weather environment on the surface of Mars since landing in 2012 by providing measurements of the energetic particle radiation environment due to solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and galactic cosmic rays (GCRs).The synoptic measurements of the energetic particle environment provided by RAD will aid heliospheric modeling of space weather over solar cycle. These observations of SEP fluxes are contributing to a solar energetic particle (SEP) event database at Mars and the Martian surface to aid prediction of Solar Particle Events (SPEs), including onset times and size predictions. This presentation will provide an overview of the RAD investigation and present measurements of the solar flare, GCR and radiation environmenton the surface of Mars, and discuss the importance of providing broad heliospheric coverage for situational awareness of space weather as we plan to send humans out into deep space and to Mars.RAD is supported by NASA (HEOMD) under JPL subcontract 1273039 to SwRI, and by DLR in Germany under contract with Christian-Albrechts-Universitat (CAU).