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Port Canaveral, FL
11 February 2025
Mars’ Space Weather
Beatriz Sanchez-Cano
ISWAT - International Space Weather Action Teams
Mars’ exploration panel
b.sanchezcano@leicester.ac.uk
Mars’ solar wind interaction
Hall et al., 2017 PhD thesis, Leicester
Credits NASA
🡨 Sun’s direction
b.sanchezcano@leicester.ac.uk
Solar cycle effects
Green: solar irradiance at Earth
Red: solar irradiance at Mars
Hall et al., 2019
Solar EUV flux is the main source of ionization. At Mars, the large orbit eccentricity dominates the amount of solar radiation that reaches Mars, and so, has an effect on the ionosphere.
Sanchez-Cano et al., 2016a
🡪 Solar irradiance
🡪 Total Electron Content in the ionosphere
b.sanchezcano@leicester.ac.uk
Solar cycle effects
While most planetary bow shocks are controlled by the solar wind, at Mars the solar EUV flux is equally important, and so, the ionosphere.
At Earth, the solar EUV control of the bow shock is negligible.
🡪 Total Electron Content in the ionosphere
Hall, Sanchez-Cano et al., 2019
Sanchez-Cano et al., 2016a
🡪 Bow shock location
b.sanchezcano@leicester.ac.uk
Solar cycle effects
🡪 Galactic Cosmic Rays measured at Mars
Knutsen et al., 2021
Credits ESA
🡪 Sunspots Number
b.sanchezcano@leicester.ac.uk
Mars’ ionosphere – “the particle absorber”
Sánchez-Cano et al., 2019 (ESA white paper Voyage-2050);
Sánchez-Cano et al., 2021
b.sanchezcano@leicester.ac.uk
Mars crustal fields
Mittelholz et al., 2022 Langlais et al., 2019
🡪 Crustal fields
🡪 Total Electron Content (nightside)
The crustal magnetic fields are mainly located at the Southern hemisphere. However, they can reach the solar wind and rotate with time. Therefore, they play a large (and quite still unknown) role on the Mars-solar wind interaction, even under quiescent solar wind conditions.
Cartacci et al., 2013
b.sanchezcano@leicester.ac.uk
Mars’ tail: solar wind door to the ionosphere
Venus-like
Mars-like
Induced magnetosphere
Hybrid magnetosphere
DiBraccio et al., 2018
open magnetic field topology (magenta),
closed magnetic field topology (cyan),
draped magnetic field topology (yellow).
Mars’ space weather: auroras, HF blackouts and more
Surface radiation enhancements
Courtesy of NASA
Courtesy of R. Lillis
Courtesy of N. Schneider
Courtesy of ESA
DISCRETE aurora
PROTON aurora
Tail aurora?
DIFFUSE aurora 🡪 SEP aurora
Radio HF propagation issues
Courtesy of N. Schneider
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b.sanchezcano@leicester.ac.uk
HF radio absorption that last FOR WEEKS
Solar energetic particle (SEP) precipitation in Mars’ atmosphere typically coincides with extended blackouts in HF signals that can last up to 10 days
Sánchez-Cano et al., 2021
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b.sanchezcano@leicester.ac.uk
Example: SEP of 15 February 2022
SHEATH
IONOSPHERE
SURFACE
MARSIS 0.1-5.5 MHz
SHARAD
20 MHz
Ground Level Enhancement of Radiation
Sanchez-Cano et al., under review
HF radar blackouts occur for as long as the SEP event lasts
However, even during the peak of the proton SEP event, SHARAD did NOT experience blackouts
🡪 WHY??
🡪 The layer created at low altitude (<100 km) must be tenuous, despite the huge radiation shower
For a Ground Level Enhancement, we need protons > 160 MeV
b.sanchezcano@leicester.ac.uk
Modelling effort and more data needed!!
SEP particle altitude deposition
Modelling shows that chemical reactions in the mesosphere are essential for ionization in this region
Sanchez-Cano et al., under review
M-MATISSE: An ESA M7-mission under study in Phase A
2 Spacecraft
Henri to orbit Mars at 200-3000 km
Marguerite to orbit Mars at 200-10,000 km
3 Science Goals to untangle Mars plasma system as never before
Global system dynamics
Processes that drive the radiation environment throughout Mars’ M-I-T, and its response to solar wind drivers
The radiation environment
Ionosphere-lower
atmosphere coupling
Global dynamics of the M-I-T system as a result of the Mars - solar wind interaction, and processes driving their coupling
Mars’s Space Weather effects on the lower atmosphere and so, on future human exploration
Multipoint plasma measurements are needed to understand mass and energy flows throughout Mars’ uniquely rich and interconnected hybrid magnetosphere
MAVEN
EMM
ESA
MRO
MOSAIC
3Dview
Key message:
In order to understand planetary space weather is essential to understand the system response to it, particularly for Mars because:
CONTACT: b.sanchezcano@leicester.ac.uk
Credits ESA