TY - JOUR

T1 - A statistical study of proton precipitation onto the Martian upper atmosphere

T2 - Mars Express observations

AU - Dieval, Catherine

AU - Stenberg, Gabriella

AU - Nilsson, Hans

AU - Barabash, Stas

N1 - ©2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

PY - 2013/6/25

Y1 - 2013/6/25

N2 - Due to the small size of the Martian magnetic pile-up region, especially at the subsolar point, heated protons with high enough energy can penetrate the induced magnetosphere boundary without being backscattered, i.e., they precipitate. We present a statistical study of the downgoing ~ keV proton fluxes measured in the Martian ionosphere by the Analyzer of Space Plasma and Energetic Atoms experiment onboard the Mars Express spacecraft. We find that on the dayside, the events of proton penetration occur during 3% of the observation time; the precipitation is an intermittent phenomenon. The proton events carry on average ~0.2% of the incident solar wind flux. Therefore, the induced magnetosphere is an effective shield against the magnetosheath protons. The events are more frequent during fast solar wind conditions than during slow solar wind conditions. The sporadic proton penetration is thought to be caused by transient increases in the magnetosheath temperature. The precipitating flux is higher on the dayside than on the nightside, and its spatial deposition is controlled by the solar wind convective electric field. The largest crustal magnetic anomalies tend to decrease the proton precipitation in the southern hemisphere. The particle and energy fluxes vary in the range 10^4–10^6 cm^–2 s^–1 and 10^7–10^9 eVcm^–2 s^–1, respectively. The corresponding heating for the dayside atmosphere is on average negligible compared to the solar extreme ultraviolet heating, although the intermittent penetration may cause local ionization. The net precipitating proton particle flux input to the dayside ionosphere is estimated as 1.2 · 10^21 s^–1.

AB - Due to the small size of the Martian magnetic pile-up region, especially at the subsolar point, heated protons with high enough energy can penetrate the induced magnetosphere boundary without being backscattered, i.e., they precipitate. We present a statistical study of the downgoing ~ keV proton fluxes measured in the Martian ionosphere by the Analyzer of Space Plasma and Energetic Atoms experiment onboard the Mars Express spacecraft. We find that on the dayside, the events of proton penetration occur during 3% of the observation time; the precipitation is an intermittent phenomenon. The proton events carry on average ~0.2% of the incident solar wind flux. Therefore, the induced magnetosphere is an effective shield against the magnetosheath protons. The events are more frequent during fast solar wind conditions than during slow solar wind conditions. The sporadic proton penetration is thought to be caused by transient increases in the magnetosheath temperature. The precipitating flux is higher on the dayside than on the nightside, and its spatial deposition is controlled by the solar wind convective electric field. The largest crustal magnetic anomalies tend to decrease the proton precipitation in the southern hemisphere. The particle and energy fluxes vary in the range 10^4–10^6 cm^–2 s^–1 and 10^7–10^9 eVcm^–2 s^–1, respectively. The corresponding heating for the dayside atmosphere is on average negligible compared to the solar extreme ultraviolet heating, although the intermittent penetration may cause local ionization. The net precipitating proton particle flux input to the dayside ionosphere is estimated as 1.2 · 10^21 s^–1.

U2 - 10.1002/jgra.50229

DO - 10.1002/jgra.50229

M3 - Journal article

VL - 118

SP - 1972

EP - 1983

JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics

JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics

SN - 2169-9402

IS - 5

ER -