The Mars Plasma Environment
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Beschreibung
Mars sits very exposed to the solar wind and, because it is a small planet, has but a weak hold on its atmosphere. The solar wind therefore plays an important role in the evolution of the martian atmosphere. Over the last four decades a series of European missions, first from the Soviet Union and more recently from the European Space Agency, together with a single investigation from the U.S., the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, have added immeasurably to our understanding of the interplay between the solar wind and Mars atmosphere.
Most recently the measurements of the plasma and fast neutral populations, conducted on the Mars Express spacecraft by the ASPERA-3 instrument have been acquired and analyzed. Their presentation to the public, most notably at the workshop "The Solar Wind Interaction and Atmosphere Evolution of Mars" held in Kiruna in early 2006, was the inspiration for this series of articles. However participation in the Kiruna conference was not a selection criterion for this volume. The papers cover the ancient sun and evolution of the solar wind, the physics of the solar wind interaction, the measurements of the hot plasma and fast neutrals by ASPERA-3, the ionosphere by MARSIS, and the x-rays emitted by the atmosphere.
The authors of this volume include many international scientists at the cutting edge of research into the Mars plasma environment. The volume documents the impressive leap forward in our comprehension of this complex environment in the years since the orbit insertion of Mars Express.
Mars sits very exposed to the solar wind. Ironically Mars possesses the strongest remanent magnetization of any body thus far visited in the solar system, yet the scale size of this magnetization is so small that it provides an insignificant shield against the solar wind. Compared to Venus that is eight times as massive, Mars has but a weak hold on its atmosphere. Mars has been the subject of intense study over the last four decades and we have learned much about its surface and lower atmosphere but studies of the solar wind interaction with its upper atmosphere and ionosphere have been much more rare. Mars 3 and 5 provided the first significant data on the induced magnetosphere, deflection of the solar wind and erosion of the atmosphere. PHOBOS-2 extended these measurements with a magnetometer and a plasma package, ASPERA (Automatic Space Plasma Experiment with a Rotating Analyzer). Itincreased our understanding of the interactions, but lasted far too short atime. Mars Global Surveyorcarried amagnetometer and an electron reflectometer and discovered the martian magnetic anomalies but added only slightly to our understanding of the interplay between the solar wind and the atmosphere. When the European Space Agency embarked on its Mars exploration strategy, it chose to include a comprehensive plasma package, on its pilot mission, Mars Ex press. Inretrospect it should have complemented this package with amagnetometer but it did not.
Contains the latest results on the plasma environment of Mars and its interaction with the solar wind These results include mapping of the plasma environment with the instruments on Mars Express and Mars Global Surveyor, the latest numerical simulations, and theoretical studies This comprehensive examination of the Mars environment also sets the stage for the interpretation of the Venus Express measurements that are now becoming available
Autor*in
C.T. Russell
Themen in »The Mars Plasma Environment«
ASPERA Environment Mars Mars Express Planet Plasma environment Solar wind atmosphere evolution helio physics ionosphere planetary science relativistic jet solar solar wind interaction space physics