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Loss of the Martian atmosphere to space: Present-day loss rates determined from MAVEN observations and integrated loss through time

Bruce Jakosky 1 David Brain 1 Michael Chaffin 1 Shannon M. Curry 2 Justin Deighan 1 Joseph Grebowsky 3 Jasper Halekas 4 François Leblanc 5 Robert Lillis 2 Janet Luhmann 2 Laila Andersson 1 Nicolas André 6 David Andrews 7 Darren Baird 8 Daniel Baker 1 Jared Bell 9 Mehdi Benna 3 Dolon Bhattacharyya 10 Stephen Bougher 11 Charlie Bowers 1 Phillip Chamberlin 1 Jean-Yves Chaufray 5 John Clarke 10 Glyn Collinson 3 Michael Combi 12 Jack Connerney 3 Kyle Connour 1 J. Correira 13 Kyle Crabb 1 Frank Crary 1 Thomas Cravens 14 Matteo Crismani 1 Greg Delory 2 Ryan Dewey 1 Gina Dibraccio 3 Chuanfei Dong 15 Yaxue Dong 1 Patrick Dunn 2 Hilary Egan 16 Meredith K. Elrod 3 Scott England 2 Frank Eparvier 1 Robert Ergun 1 Anders Eriksson 7 Teresa Esman 17 Jared Espley 3 S. Evans 13 Kathryn Fallows 10 Xiaohua Fang 1 Matthew Fillingim 2 C. Flynn 18 A. Fogle 2 Christopher M. Fowler 1 Jane L. Fox 19 Masaki Fujimoto 20 Philippe Garnier 6 Zachary Girazian 3 Hannes Groeller 17 Jacob Gruesbeck 3 O. Hamil 14 K. Hanley 1 Takuya Hara 2 Yuki Harada 21 Jacob Hermann 1 Mika Holmberg 6 Greg Holsclaw 1 S. Houston 22 S. Inui 23 Sonal Jain 1 Rebecca Jolitz 1 Anna Kotova 6 Takeshi Kuroda 24 Davin Larson 2 Yuni Lee 3 C. Lee 2 Franck Lefèvre 25 Christy Lentz 1 D. Lo 17 Rafael Lugo 26 Yingjuan Ma 27 Paul R. Mahaffy 3 Melissa Marquette 2 Y. Matsumoto 23 Majd Mayyasi 10 Christian Mazelle 6 William Mcclintock 1 Jim Mcfadden 2 A. Medvedev 28 Michael Mendillo 10 K. Meziane 29 Zachariah Milby 1 D. Mitchell 2 Ronan Modolo 5 Franck Montmessin 25 Andrew Nagy 12 H. Nakagawa 30 Clara Narvaez 10 Kirk Olsen 11 D. Pawlowski 31 William Peterson 1 Ali Rahmati 2 Kali Roeten 32 Norberto Romanelli 5 Suranga Ruhunusiri 21 Christopher T. Russell 33 Shotaro Sakai 34 Nicholas Schneider 1 K. Seki 23 R. Sharrar 32 S. Shaver 1 David E. Siskind 35 Marek Slipski 1 Yasir Soobiah 3 Morgane Steckiewicz 6 Michael Stevens 35 Ian Stewart 1 Arnaud Stiepen 36 S. Stone 17 Valeriy Tenishev 11 Naoki Terada 37 Kaori Terada 37 Edward Thiemann 1 R. Tolson 9 G. Toth 11 Jeffrey Trovato 18 M. Vogt 18 Tristan Weber 1 P. Withers 18 Shaosui Xu 2 Roger Yelle 38 Erdal Yiğit 39 Richard Zurek 40
1 LASP - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics [Boulder]
2 SSL - Space Sciences Laboratory [Berkeley]
3 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
4 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Iowa City]
5 HEPPI - LATMOS
LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales
6 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
7 IRF - Swedish Institute of Space Physics [Uppsala]
8 JSC - NASA Johnson Space Center
9 NIA - National Institute of Aerospace [Hampton]
10 CSP - Center for Space Physics [Boston]
11 CLaSP - Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering
12 AOSS - Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences [Ann Arbor]
13 CPI - Communications and Power Industries
14 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Lawrence Kansas]
15 Princeton University
16 University of Colorado [Boulder]
17 University of Arizona
18 BU - Boston University [Boston]
19 Wright State University
20 ISAS - Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
21 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Ames, Iowa]
22 University of Kansas [Kansas City]
23 The University of Tokyo
24 NICT - National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
25 IMPEC - LATMOS
LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales
26 Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc.
27 UCLA - University of California [Los Angeles]
28 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung
29 UNB - University of New Brunswick
30 Tohoku University [Sendai]
31 Eastern Michigan University
32 University of Michigan [Ann Arbor]
33 IGPP - Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics [Los Angeles]
34 Department of Earth and Planetary Science [Tokyo]
35 NRL - Naval Research Laboratory
36 LPAP - Laboratoire de Physique Atmosphérique et Planétaire
37 Graduate School of Information Sciences [Sendai]
38 LPL - Lunar and Planetary Laboratory [Tucson]
39 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Fairfax]
40 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Abstract : Observations of the Mars upper atmosphere made from the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft have been used to determine the loss rates of gas from the upper atmosphere to space for a complete Mars year (16 Nov 2014 – 3 Oct 2016). Loss rates for H and O are sufficient to remove ∼2-3 kg/s to space. By itself, this loss would be significant over the history of the planet. In addition, loss rates would have been greater early in history due to the enhanced solar EUV and more-active Sun. Integrated loss, based on current processes whose escape rates in the past are adjusted according to expected solar evolution, would have been as much as 0.8 bar CO2 or 23 m global equivalent layer of H2O; these losses are likely to be lower limits due to the nature of the extrapolation of loss rates to the earliest times. Combined with the lack of surface or subsurface reservoirs for CO2 that could hold remnants of an early, thick atmosphere, these results suggest that loss of gas to space has been the dominant process responsible for changing the climate of Mars from an early, warmer environment to the cold, dry one that we see today.
Keywords : Magnetospheres Atmosphere Mars Mars climate Solar wind Mars atmosphere
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Journal articles
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https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01807507
Contributor : Catherine Cardon <>
Submitted on : Monday, June 4, 2018 - 6:23:40 PM
Last modification on : Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - 5:28:03 PM

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INSU | CNRS | OMP-IRAP | UVSQ | OMP | UNIV-PARIS-SACLAY | SORBONNE-UNIVERSITE | LATMOS | UNIV-TLSE3 | SU-SCIENCES

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Bruce Jakosky, David Brain, Michael Chaffin, Shannon M. Curry, Justin Deighan, et al.. Loss of the Martian atmosphere to space: Present-day loss rates determined from MAVEN observations and integrated loss through time. Icarus, Elsevier, 2018, 315, pp.146-157. ⟨10.1016/j.icarus.2018.05.030⟩. ⟨insu-01807507⟩

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