Altitude of Mars aurorae deduced from SPICAM limb detections

L. Soret (1) , J.-C. Gérard (1) , L. Libert (1) , V. I. Shematovich (2) , D. V. Bisikalo (2) , Arnaud Stiepen (1) , Jean-Loup Bertaux (3)

1 LPAP - Laboratoire de Physique Atmosphérique et Planétaire
2 INASAN - Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences
3 PLANETO - LATMOS

Martian aurorae have been detected with the SPICAM instrument on board Mars Express both in the nadir and the limb viewing modes. In this study, we focus on three limb detections to determine the altitudes of the auroral emissions and their intensities. We then use a model of electron transport in the Martian thermosphere based on a Monte-Carlo method to simulate and to understand the excitation processes leading to these auroral emissions.

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]

L. Soret, J.-C. Gérard, L. Libert, V. I. Shematovich, D. V. Bisikalo, et al.. Altitude of Mars aurorae deduced from SPICAM limb detections. European Planetary Science Congress 2015, Sep 2015, Nantes, France. pp.EPSC2015-226. ⟨insu-01208094⟩