MAVEN observations of the response of Mars to an interplanetary coronal mass ejection

Bruce M. Jakosky (1) , Joseph M. Grebowsky (2) , Janet G. Luhmann (3) , J. Connerney (2) , F. Eparvier (1) , Robert Ergun (1) , Jasper Halekas (4) , Davin Larson (3) , Paul Mahaffy (2) , Jim Mcfadden (3) , David F. Mitchell (3) , Nick Schneider (1) , Richard Zurek (5) , Stephen Bougher (6) , David Brain (1) , Yingjuan J. Ma (7) , Christian Mazelle (8) , Laila Andersson (1) , David Andrews (9) , Darren Baird (10) , Daniel Baker (1) , Jared M. Bell (11) , Mehdi Benna (2) , Michael Chaffin (1) , Phillip Chamberlin (2) , Jean-Yves Chaufray (12) , John Clarke (13) , Glyn Collinson (2) , Mike Combi (6) , Frank Crary (1) , Thomas Cravens (14) , Matteo Crismani (1) , Shannon Curry (3) , David Curtis (3) , Justin Deighan (1) , Greg Delory (3) , Ryan Dewey (1) , Gina Dibraccio (2) , Chuanfei Dong (6) , Yaxue Dong (1) , Patrick Dunn (3) , Meredith Elrod (2) , Scott England (3) , Anders Eriksson (9) , Jared Espley (2) , S. Evans (15) , Xiaohua Fang (1) , Matthew Fillingim (3) , Kier Fortier (1) , Chris M. Fowler (1) , Jane Fox (16) , Hannes Gröller (17) , S. Guzewich (2) , Takuya Hara (3) , Y. Harada (3) , Greg Holsclaw (1) , Sonal K. Jain (1) , R. Jolitz (3) , François Leblanc (12) , Christina O. Lee (3) , Y. Lee (6) , Franck Lefèvre (18) , Robert Lillis (3) , R. Livi (3) , Daniel Lo (17) , M. Mayyasi (19) , William Mcclintock (1) , Tess Mcenulty (1) , Ronan Modolo (12) , Franck Montmessin (18) , Michiko Morooka (1) , Andrew Nagy (6) , K. Olsen (6) , William Peterson (1) , Ali Rahmati (14) , Suranga Ruhunusiri (4) , C. T. Russell (7) , S. Sakai (14) , Jean-André Sauvaud (8) , Kanako Seki (20) , Morgane Steckiewicz (8) , M. Stevens (21) , A. Ian F. Stewart (1) , Arnaud Stiepen (1) , S. Stone (17) , V. Tenishev (6) , Ed Thiemann (1) , R. Tolson (11) , Dominique Toublanc (8) , M. Vogt (19) , Tristan Weber (1) , Paul Withers (19) , Tom Woods (1) , Roger Yelle (17)

1 LASP - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics [Boulder]
2 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
3 SSL - Space Sciences Laboratory [Berkeley]
4 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Ames, Iowa]
5 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
6 CLaSP - Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering
7 IGPP - Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics [Los Angeles]
8 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
9 IRF - Swedish Institute of Space Physics [Uppsala]
10 JSC - NASA Johnson Space Center
11 NIA - National Institute of Aerospace [Hampton]
12 HELIOS - LATMOS
13 CSP - Center for Space Physics [Boston]
14 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Lawrence Kansas]
15 Computational Physics, Inc.
16 Department of Physics [Dayton]
17 LPL - Lunar and Planetary Laboratory [Tucson]
18 PLANETO - LATMOS
19 Department of Astronomy [Boston]
20 STEL - Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory [Nagoya]
21 NRL - Naval Research Laboratory

Coupling between the lower and upper atmosphere, combined with loss of gas from the upper atmosphere to space, likely contributed to the thin, cold, dry atmosphere of modern Mars. To help understand ongoing ion loss to space, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft made comprehensive measurements of the Mars upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun and solar wind during an interplanetary coronal mass ejection impact in March 2015. Responses include changes in the bow shock and magnetosheath, formation of widespread diffuse aurora, and enhancement of pick-up ions. Observations and models both show an enhancement in escape rate of ions to space during the event. Ion loss during solar events early in Mars history may have been a major contributor to the long-term evolution of the Mars atmosphere.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Ocean, Atmosphere; Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Astrophysics [astro-ph]; Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP]

Bruce M. Jakosky, Joseph M. Grebowsky, Janet G. Luhmann, J. Connerney, F. Eparvier, et al.. MAVEN observations of the response of Mars to an interplanetary coronal mass ejection. Science, 2015, 350 (6261), pp.aad0210. ⟨10.1126/science.aad0210⟩. ⟨insu-01227502⟩