Compositional Variation of the Dayside Martian Ionosphere: Inference from Photochemical Equilibrium Computations

2021 ◽  
Vol 923 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Xiaoshu Wu ◽  
Jun Cui ◽  
Dandan Niu ◽  
Zhipeng Ren ◽  
Yong Wei

Abstract The Martian ionosphere plays a crucial role in driving the interactions of the planet with solar photons and solar wind particles. The variations of the dayside Martian ionosphere with several controlling factors, including the solar extreme ultraviolet radiation, the background atmosphere, and the underlying thermal structure, have been the topic of extensive research in terms of electron distribution. In contrast, how the ionospheric composition varies has not been systematically investigated, a topic that is attempted in this study based on photochemical equilibrium computations performed at 100–200 km altitude, including a large number of reactions. Our calculations reveal the following compositional variations as natural outcomes of the ionospheric chemistry on Mars. (1) With increasing solar irradiance, the proportions of the majority of nonterminal ions are enhanced at the expense of reduced proportions of terminal ions, including O 2 + , HCO+, NO+, and H3O+. (2) At high electron temperatures, the proportion of NO+ is modestly reduced, whereas the proportions of the other species are nearly unaffected. (3) The response of the ionospheric composition to the upper atmospheric composition is complicated, showing the strong negative response of many trace ions to ambient CO2, O, and CO, as well as the strong positive response of protonated ions to H2, nitrogen-bearing ions to N and N2, water-group ions to H2O, and HO 2 + to O2. As an application of the model results, the recent ion measurements made on board the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution are used to provide hints about the realistic composition of the Martian upper atmosphere.

2018 ◽  
Vol 189 (03) ◽  
pp. 323-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.B. Abramenko ◽  
P.S. Antsiferov ◽  
D.I. Astakhov ◽  
Aleksandr Yu. Vinokhodov ◽  
Il'ya Yu. Vichev ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 79 (5) ◽  
pp. 489-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. MILLS ◽  
R. BOOKER ◽  
Y. LU

AbstractUnder a study contracted by GEN3 Partners, spectra of high current pinch discharges in pure hydrogen and helium were recorded in the extreme ultraviolet radiation region at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in an attempt to reproduce experimental results published by BlackLight Power, Inc. (BLP) showing predicted continuum radiation due to hydrogen in the 10–30 nm region (Mills, R. L. and Lu, Y. 2010 Hydrino continuum transitions with cutoffs at 22.8 nm and 10.1 nm. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy35, 8446–8456, doi:10.1016?j.ijhydene.2010.05.098). Alternative explanations were considered to the claimed interpretation of the continuum radiation as being that emitted during transitions of H to lower-energy states (hydrinos). Continuum radiation was observed at CfA in the 10–30 nm region that matched BLP's results. Considering the low energy of 5.2 J per pulse, the observed radiation in the energy range of about 120–40 eV, reference experiments and analysis of plasma gases, cryofiltration to remove contaminants, and spectra of the electrode metal, no conventional explanation was found in the prior or present work to be plausible including contaminants, electrode metal emission, and Bremsstrahlung, ion recombination, molecular or molecular ion band radiation, and instrument artifacts involving radicals and energetic ions reacting at the charge-coupled device and H2 re-radiation at the detector chamber. Moreover, predicted selective extraordinarily high-kinetic energy H was observed by the corresponding Doppler broadening of the Balmer α line.


2018 ◽  
Vol 113 (22) ◽  
pp. 221905 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Maznev ◽  
F. Bencivenga ◽  
A. Cannizzo ◽  
F. Capotondi ◽  
R. Cucini ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 615 ◽  
pp. A47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Srividya Subramanian ◽  
Vinay L. Kashyap ◽  
Durgesh Tripathi ◽  
Maria S. Madjarska ◽  
John G. Doyle

We study the thermal structure and energetics of the point-like extreme ultraviolet (EUV) brightenings within a system of fan loops observed in the active region AR 11520. These brightenings were simultaneously observed on 2012 July 11 by the High-resolution Coronal (Hi-C) imager and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). We identified 27 brightenings by automatically determining intensity enhancements in both Hi-C and AIA 193 Å light curves. The energetics of these brightenings were studied using the Differential Emission Measure (DEM) diagnostics. The DEM weighted temperatures of these transients are in the range log T(K) = 6.2−6.6 with radiative energies ≈1024−25 ergs and densities approximately equal to a few times 109 cm−3. To the best of our knowledge, these are the smallest brightenings in EUV ever detected. We used these results to determine the mechanism of energy loss in these brightenings. Our analysis reveals that the dominant mechanism of energy loss for all the identified brightenings is conduction rather than radiation.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Szopa ◽  
Rémi Thiéblemont ◽  
Slimane Bekki ◽  
Svetlana Botsyun ◽  
Pierre Sepulchre

Abstract. The stratospheric ozone layer plays a key role in atmospheric thermal structure and circulation. Although stratospheric ozone distribution is sensitive to changes in composition and climate, the modifications of stratospheric ozone are not usually considered in climate studies at geological time scales. Here, we evaluate with a chemical-climate model the potential role of stratospheric ozone chemistry in the case of the Eocene hot conditions. We show that the structure of the ozone layer is significantly different under these conditions (4×CO2 climate and high concentrations of tropospheric N2O and CH4). While at mid and high latitudes, the total column ozone is found to be enhanced, the tropical ozone column remains more or less unchanged. These ozone changes are related to the stratospheric cooling and an acceleration of stratospheric Brewer-Dobson circulation simulated under Eocene climate. The meridional distribution of the total ozone column appears also to be strongly modified, showing particularly pronounced mid-latitudes maxima and steeper negative poleward gradient from these maxima. These anomalies are consistent with changes in the seasonal evolution of the polar vortex during the winter, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. Compared to a pre-industrial atmospheric composition, the changes in local ozone concentration reach up to 40 % for zonal annual mean and affect temperature by a few Kelvins in the middle stratosphere. As inter-model differences in simulating the deep past temperatures are quite high, the consideration of atmospheric chemistry, which is computationally demanding in Earth system models, may seem superfluous. However, our results suggest that using stratospheric ozone calculated by the model (and hence more physically consistent with Eocene conditions) instead of the commonly specified preindustrial ozone distribution can change the simulated global surface air temperature by 14 %. This error is of the same order as the effect of non-CO2 boundary conditions (topography, bathymetry, solar constant & vegetation). Moreover, the results highlight the sensitivity of stratospheric ozone to hot climate conditions. Since the climate sensitivity to stratospheric ozone feedback largely differs between models, it must be better constrained not only for deep past conditions but also for future climates.


2014 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Jørn G. Rønsbo ◽  
Henning Sørensen ◽  
Encarnacion Roda-Robles ◽  
François Fontan ◽  
Pierre Monchoux

In the Ilímaussaq alkaline complex, minerals from the rinkite–nacareniobsite-(Ce) solid solution series have been found in pulaskite pegmatite, sodalite foyaite, naujaite and naujaite pegmatite from the roof sequence, and in marginal pegmatite, kakortokite and lujavrite from the floor sequence. The electron microprobe analyses embrace almost the full extension of the solid solution series and confirm its continuity. The solid solution series shows similar compositional variations in the roof and floor sequences: Rinkite members of the series are found in the less evolved rocks in the two sequences, whereas nacareniobsite-Ce members occur in the most evolved rocks and pegmatites in the two sequences. The REE (+Y) content varies from 0.83 atoms per formula unit (apfu) in rinkite from pulaskite pegmatite to 1.31 apfu in nacareniobsite-(Ce) from naujaite pegmatite. The main substitution mechanisms in the solid solution series investigated in this work are 2Ca2+ = Na+ + REE3+ and Ti4+ + Ca2+ = Nb5+ + Na+. The increased contents of Nb5+ and REE3+ are only to a minor degree compensated through the F1– = O2– substitution. The chondrite normalised REE patterns of the minerals develop in a similar way in the two sequences, showing relative La-enrichment and Y-depletion from the less to the most evolved rocks. Hainite has not previously been found in the Ilímaussaq complex. It was here identified in a pulaskite pegmatite sample by a combination of X-ray diffraction giving the unit cell dimensions a = 9.5923(7) Å, b = 7.3505(5) Å, c = 5.7023(4) Å, α = 89.958(2)°, β = 100.260(1)°, γ = 101.100(2)°, and X-ray powder pattern and electron microprobe data giving the empirical formula (Ca1.62 Zr0.16Y 0.22) (Na0.87Ca1.11) (Ca 1.65 REE0.35)Na(Ti0.81Nb0.09Fe0.08 Zr0.02)(Si2O7)2O0.99F2.96. Based on published and the present data it is documented that minerals from the hainite-götzenite solid solution series show a compositional variation between the ideal end members (Y,REE,Zr)Na2Ca4Ti(Si2O7)2OF3 and NaCa6Ti(Si2O7)2OF3.


2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 013008 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Ranitovic ◽  
X M Tong ◽  
B Gramkow ◽  
S De ◽  
B DePaola ◽  
...  

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