Fully coupled photochemistry of the deuterated ionosphere of Mars and its effects on escape of H and D

TL;DR

This study models Mars's deuterated ionosphere using a fully coupled photochemical model to understand non-thermal D escape, revealing significant D loss but low detectability with current methods.

Contribution

First application of a fully coupled ion-neutral photochemical model to Mars's deuterated ionosphere, providing new insights into D escape processes under various solar conditions.

Findings

Non-thermal D escape dominates atomic D loss.

Deuterated ions are difficult to measure with current techniques.

Water loss estimates are 147-158 meters of GEL.

Abstract

Although deuterium (D) on Mars has received substantial attention, the deuterated ionosphere remains relatively unstudied. This means that we also know very little about non-thermal D escape from Mars, since it is primarily driven by excess energy imparted to atoms produced in ion-neutral reactions. Most D escape from Mars is expected to be non-thermal, highlighting a gap in our understanding of water loss from Mars. In this work, we set out to fill this knowledge gap. To accomplish our goals, we use an upgraded 1D photochemical model that fully couples ions and neutrals and does not assume photochemical equilibrium. To our knowledge, such a model has not been applied to Mars previously. We model the atmosphere during solar minimum, mean, and maximum, and find that the deuterated ionosphere behaves similarly to the H-bearing ionosphere, but that non-thermal escape on the order of 8000-9000 cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$ dominates atomic D loss under all solar conditions. The total fractionation factor, $f$, is $f=0.04$--0.07, and integrated water loss is 147--158 m GEL. This is still less than geomorphological estimates. Deuterated ions at Mars are likely difficult to measure with current techniques due to low densities and mass degeneracies with more abundant H ions. Future missions wishing to measure the deuterated ionosphere in situ will need to develop innovative techniques to do so.