Electrical conductivity of the mantle of Mars from MGS magnetic observations

François Civet (1, 2) , Pascal Tarits (2)

1 LPG - Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique [UMR 6112]
2 LDO - Domaines Océaniques

Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) magnetic data were analyzed to obtain the electromagnetically induced response of the Martian mantle. The time-varying part of the MGS magnetic data analysis was obtained by removing a model of the static field. Only night data were selected and binned on a regular grid. The binned time series were processed using a proxy of the transient magnetic field. Two proxies were designed, one based on the MGS data themselves and one built from the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) dataset. The internal induced response of the planet was obtained at periods ranging from more than 1 to 200 days. The induced responses were inverted to infer the mantle's electrical conductivity down to about 1,300 km. The comparison of our conductivity profiles with previous theoretical studies confirms an aerotherm close to the cold boundary of thermal models of the Mars interior. A mantle transition zone was determined between 1,000 and 1,200 km deep.

Keywords: Electromagnetic induction; Electrical conductivity; Mars Global Surveyor; Magnetic field; Mars mantle

Domains: Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]

François Civet, Pascal Tarits. Electrical conductivity of the mantle of Mars from MGS magnetic observations. Earth Planets and Space, 2014, 66 (1), pp.article n° 85. ⟨10.1186/1880-5981-66-85⟩. ⟨insu-01118514⟩