Mars Thermospheric Variability Revealed by MAVEN EUVM Solar Occultations: Structure at Aphelion and Perihelion, and Response to EUV Forcing

TL;DR

This study uses MAVEN EUVM solar occultation data to reveal new insights into the structure, variability, and dynamics of the Martian thermosphere at different orbital points, enhancing understanding of its climate evolution and implications for spacecraft operations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for deriving thermospheric density and temperature profiles from MAVEN EUVM occultation data, expanding the observational dataset and revealing previously unobserved structures and dynamics.

Findings

Identification of new density and temperature structures at aphelion and perihelion.

Observation of a high altitude polar warming feature at intermediate latitudes.

Detection of a thermostatic response to solar EUV heating during a solar rotation.

Abstract

The Mars thermosphere holds clues to the evolution of the Martian climate, and has practical implications for spacecraft visiting Mars, which often use it for aerobraking upon arrival, or for landers, which must pass through it. Nevertheless, it has been sparsely characterized, even when past accelerometer measurements and remote observations are taken into account. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter, which includes a number of instruments designed to characterize the thermosphere, has greatly expanded the available thermospheric observations. This paper presents new and unanticipated measurements of density and temperature profiles (120-200 km) derived from solar occultations using the MAVEN Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Monitor. These new measurements complement and expand MAVEN's intended thermospheric measurement capacity. In particular, because the local-time is inherently fixed to the terminator, solar occultations are ideally suited for characterizing long-term and latitudinal variability. Occultation measurements are made during approximately half of all orbits, resulting in thousands of new thermospheric profiles. The density retrieval method is presented in detail, including an uncertainty analysis. Altitude-latitude maps of thermospheric density and temperature at perihelion and aphelion are presented, revealing structures that have not been previously observed. Tracers of atmospheric dynamics are also observed, including a high altitude polar warming feature at intermediate latitudes, and an apparent thermostatic response to solar EUV heating during a solar rotation, which shows heating at high altitudes that is accompanied by cooling at lower altitudes.