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American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, 6261(350), 2015

DOI: 10.1126/science.aad0459

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Early MAVEN Deep Dip campaign reveals thermosphere and ionosphere variability

Journal article published in 2015 by Yingjuan, Stephen Bougher, William Mcclintock, Bruce Jakosky, Jasper Halekas ORCID, Jim McFadden, Joseph Grebowsky, David Mitchell, Nick Schneider, Janet Luhmann, Richard Zurek, Christian Mazelle, Paul Mahaffy, Laila Andersson, Jack Connerney and other authors.
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, during the second of its Deep Dip campaigns, made comprehensive measurements of martian thermosphere and ionosphere composition, structure, and variability at altitudes down to ~130 kilometers in the subsolar region. This altitude range contains the diffusively separated upper atmosphere just above the well-mixed atmosphere, the layer of peak extreme ultraviolet heating and primary reservoir for atmospheric escape. In situ measurements of the upper atmosphere reveal previously unmeasured populations of neutral and charged particles, the homopause altitude at approximately 130 kilometers, and an unexpected level of variability both on an orbit-to-orbit basis and within individual orbits. These observations help constrain volatile escape processes controlled by thermosphere and ionosphere structure and variability.