Effect of ion heating on the plasma transport at polar latitudes of Mars

Abstract

A model has been developed to investigate the transport of upward flowing ions from the dayside and nightside ionosphere at different latitudes and longitudes towards the Martian tail in the presence of electric and magnetic fields against the gravity of the planet. The density distribution of ions O⁺, O₂⁺, NO⁺ and CO₂⁺ are calculated in the dayside and nightside exosphere of Mars at different exospheric plasma temperatures between altitudes 200 km and 8000 km. The results are compared with data from the Automatic Space Plasma Experiment with Rotating Analyzer (ASPERA) experiment detained in the magnetotail of Mars. It has been found that the ions O⁺, O₂⁺ and NO⁺ are present in the distant tail at 2000 K. The ion CO₂⁺ is predicted to be absent at high altitudes.