Neutral Composition and Horizontal Variations of the Martian Upper Atmosphere From MAVEN NGIMS
Corresponding Author
Shane W. Stone
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
Correspondence to:
S. W. Stone,
Contribution: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization
Search for more papers by this authorRoger V. Yelle
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
Contribution: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition
Search for more papers by this authorMehdi Benna
Planetary Environments Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
CRESST, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA
Contribution: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Data curation, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition
Search for more papers by this authorMeredith K. Elrod
Planetary Environments Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
CRESST, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Contribution: Software, Data curation, Writing - review & editing, Project administration
Search for more papers by this authorPaul R. Mahaffy
Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Contribution: Resources, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Shane W. Stone
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
Correspondence to:
S. W. Stone,
Contribution: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization
Search for more papers by this authorRoger V. Yelle
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
Contribution: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition
Search for more papers by this authorMehdi Benna
Planetary Environments Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
CRESST, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA
Contribution: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Data curation, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition
Search for more papers by this authorMeredith K. Elrod
Planetary Environments Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
CRESST, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Contribution: Software, Data curation, Writing - review & editing, Project administration
Search for more papers by this authorPaul R. Mahaffy
Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Contribution: Resources, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Using data from the NASA Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS), we investigate the horizontal variations in composition of the Martian upper atmosphere. We focus on ratios of Ar, N2, O, He, and H2 to CO2 and their variation with local time, latitude, season, and temperature. These are the first direct measurements of H2 in the upper atmosphere, a species important for the delivery of H to this region because H and H2 escape to space. The NGIMS data nominally cover an altitude range of ∼150–300 km, from near the mesopause to above the exobase. The ratios to CO2 of He and H2 are larger toward the poles and on the nightside of the planet, where the atmosphere is colder and downwelling leads to the enrichment of these lighter species. For example, the H2 to CO2 ratio, at a CO2 density of 1 × 108 cm−3, is observed to increase by a factor of 2.8 from 52.5°S to 72.5°S and by a factor of 5.5 from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. around the equator. We observe seasonal variation of the Ar to CO2 ratio due to deposition and sublimation of CO2 at the polar ice caps. Finally, we find good agreement between the Ar and N2 to CO2 ratios obtained by the Viking Lander Upper Atmospheric Mass Spectrometers and those obtained by NGIMS, and significant disagreement between the N2 to CO2 ratios obtained by the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph on MAVEN and those obtained by NGIMS.
Key Points
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The composition of the upper atmosphere of Mars is investigated using mass spectrometer measurements from Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer
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The variation of the ratios of Ar, N2, O, He, and H2 to CO2 with local time, latitude, and season is measured
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All species show a diurnal variation in density ratio with maxima in the early morning and magnitude inversely correlated with mass
Plain Language Summary
Using data from the NASA Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS), which analyzes components of a gas by their mass, we investigate the composition of the outermost portion of the Martian atmosphere. This region of the atmosphere is important because a part of it escapes to space. We explore the way in which the proportions of Ar, N2, O, He, and H2 vary relative to the main atmospheric gas, CO2, over a Martian day and with temperature, latitude, and season. These are the first direct measurements of H2 in the upper atmosphere of Mars. We find that the proportions of the lightest species, H2 and He, vary substantially throughout the Martian day and with latitude. This variation is caused by transport of these species to cooler regions: the atmosphere on the nightside of the planet and above the poles. We observe seasonal variation in the proportion of Ar, which is due to the conversion of CO2 gas to ice at the polar caps during winter. Finally, we find good agreement between measurements obtained by NGIMS and the NASA Viking missions, but significant disagreement between NGIMS and the MAVEN Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph.
Open Research
Data Availability Statement
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer data set is publicly available on the NASA Planetary Data System (see Benna and Lyness [2014]) and the MAVEN Science Data Center (https://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/sdc/public/pages/datasets/ngims.html). The derived data reported in this manuscript has been placed in a Zenodo repository (Stone et al., 2022).
Supporting Information
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