DR-induced Hot Oxygen and Carbon Coronae of Early Mars

Jinjing Zhao (1, 2) , Eric Chassefière (2) , Feng Tian (1) , Jean-Yves Chaufray (3) , François Leblanc (3)

1 THU - Tsinghua University [Beijing]
2 GEOPS - Géosciences Paris Sud
3 HELIOS - LATMOS

The evolution of Martian atmosphere is a key aspect to understand the habitability of Mars in time. The distributions of neutral atoms above the exobase of ancient Mars (corona) is important for understanding the interactions between the corona and the solar wind, which could help improving our understanding of the evolution of Martian atmosphere. In this work, a 3-D Monte Carlo Model is built to simulate Martian corona in different period of Mars history based on thermosphere structure corresponding to 1, 3, 10, and 20 times present solar XUV conditions and dissociative recombination (DR) reaction profiles. DR reactions of O₂⁺, CO₂⁺, and CO⁺ are considered as the sources of primary O and C. Secondary O and C atoms, which are formed through collisions between primaries and background species. We will discuss the dependence of physical properties of Martian corona as functions of solar XUV flux and DR reactions. We will also discuss the potential importance of CO⁺ DR as a contributor to Martian corona.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Jinjing Zhao, Eric Chassefière, Feng Tian, Jean-Yves Chaufray, François Leblanc. DR-induced Hot Oxygen and Carbon Coronae of Early Mars. AGU 2017 Fall Meeting, Dec 2017, New Orleans, United States. ⟨insu-01677929⟩