Abstract
Data from the Ion Mass Analyzer (IMA) sensor of the ASPERA-3 instrument suite on Mars Express have been analyzed to determine the mass composition of the escaping ion species at Mars. We have examined 77 different ion-beam events and we present the results in terms of flux ratios between the following ion species: CO+2/O+ and O+2/O+. The following ratios averaged over all events and energies were identified: CO+2/O+ = 0.2 and O+2/O+ = 0.9. The values measured are significantly higher, by a factor of 10 for O+2/O+, than a contemporary modeled ratio for the maximum fluxes which the martian ionosphere can supply. The most abundant ion species was found to be O+, followed by O+2 and CO+2. We estimate the loss of CO+2 to be 4.0 × 1024 s-1 ( 0.29 kg s-1 ) by using the previous measurements of Phobos-2 in our calculations. The dependence of the ion ratios in relation to their energy ranges we studied, 0.3-3.0 keV, indicated that no clear correlation was found.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 320-328 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Icarus |
Volume | 182 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2006 |
Keywords
- atmosphere
- Ionospheres
- Mars