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Detailed Reference Information |
Luhmann, J.G. and Schwingenschuh, K. (1990). A model of the energetic ion environment of Mars. Journal of Geophysical Research 95: doi: 10.1029/89JA01457. issn: 0148-0227. |
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Because Mars has a weak intrinsic magnetic field and a substantial atmosphere, instruments on orbiting spacecraft should detect a population of energetic heavy planetary ions which result from comet-like ion pickup in the solar wind and magnetosheath convection electric fields, in addition to those that might result from processes internal to a Martian ''magnetosphere.'' Although this ion exosphere has been previously discussed in the literature, detailed predictions that might be directly applied to the interpretation of data are not available. Here a test particle model is used to construct a global picture of Martian pickup ions in the Mars environment. The model makes use of the recent Nagy and Cravens [1988> model of the Martian exosphere and Spreiter and Stahara's [1980> gas dynamic model of the magnetosheath. The pickup of ions originating at Phobos is also considered. Notable properties of the resulting ion distributions include their near-monoenergetic spectra, pancake pitch angle distributions, and large gyroradii compared to the planetary scale. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1990 |
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Abstract |
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Keywords
Ionosphere, Planetary ionospheres, Planetology, Solid Surface Planets, Ionospheres |
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
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