Chemistry of the dayside ionosphere of Mars

Raina, K. S. ; Haider, S. A. (1998) Chemistry of the dayside ionosphere of Mars Indian Journal of Radio and Space Physics, 27 (4). pp. 185-198. ISSN 0367-8393

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Official URL: http://adsabs.harvard.edu//abs/1998IJRSP..27..185R

Abstract

The density calculations for nine ions CO2+, N2+, O2+, O+, CO+, NO+, N+, H+ and C+ are made to study the chemistry of the dayside ionosphere of Mars using analytical yield spectrum approach and coupled continuity equation for the steady state condition. Among these ions; O2+, NO+ and CO2+ are major, while others are minor. The density of NO+ is directly related to its parent density. The ionization and dissociative ionization of CO2 produce large amount of CO2+ and O+, respectively, which are lost by dissociative recombination and atomic oxygen to form O2+ as a dominant ion in the dayside ionosphere of Mars. The ionization and dissociative ionization of N2 are also important processes for the production of N2+ and N+, respectively. The ions H+, CO+ and C+ are entirely destroyed by CO2. In the calculation, the loss of ions due to horizontal transport along Martian magnetic field lines is also included by solving a simplified horizontal momentum equation for ion-neutral and ion-electron collisions. It is found that the horizontal plasma transport is an important loss process for all ions above 150 km. Below this altitude, the ionosphere of Mars is controlled by a photochemical equilibrium condition. The calculated electron density is in good agreement with the measurements made by radio occultation experiment on Mariner-4 and retarding potential analyzer experiments on Viking-1 and 2.

Item Type:Article
Source:Copyright of this article belongs to National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources.
Keywords:Mars Ionosphere: Chemistry
ID Code:63305
Deposited On:28 Sep 2011 10:41
Last Modified:28 Sep 2011 10:41

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