Detection of magnetospheric ion drift patterns at Mars
Authors:
Chi Zhang,
Hans Nilsson,
Yusuke Ebihara,
Masatoshi Yamauchi,
Moa Persson,
Zhaojin Rong,
Jun Zhong,
Chuanfei Dong,
Yuxi Chen,
Xuzhi Zhou,
Yixin Sun,
Yuki Harada,
Jasper Halekas,
Shaosui Xu,
Yoshifumi Futaana,
Zhen Shi,
Chongjing Yuan,
Xiaotong Yun,
Song Fu,
Jiawei Gao,
Mats Holmström,
Yong Wei,
Stas Barabash
Abstract:
Mars lacks a global magnetic field, and instead possesses small-scale crustal magnetic fields, making its magnetic environment fundamentally different from intrinsic magnetospheres like those of Earth or Saturn. Here we report the discovery of magnetospheric ion drift patterns, typical of intrinsic magnetospheres, at Mars usingmeasurements fromMarsAtmosphere and Volatile EvolutioNmission. Specific…
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Mars lacks a global magnetic field, and instead possesses small-scale crustal magnetic fields, making its magnetic environment fundamentally different from intrinsic magnetospheres like those of Earth or Saturn. Here we report the discovery of magnetospheric ion drift patterns, typical of intrinsic magnetospheres, at Mars usingmeasurements fromMarsAtmosphere and Volatile EvolutioNmission. Specifically, we observewedge-like dispersion structures of hydrogen ions exhibiting butterfly-shaped distributions within the Martian crustal fields, a feature previously observed only in planetary-scale intrinsic magnetospheres. These dispersed structures are the results of driftmotions that fundamentally resemble those observed in intrinsic magnetospheres. Our findings indicate that the Martian magnetosphere embodies an intermediate case where both the unmagnetized and magnetized ion behaviors could be observed because of the wide range of strengths and spatial scales of the crustal magnetic fields around Mars.
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Submitted 10 November, 2023;
originally announced November 2023.