Analysis of Solar Wind Plasma Properties of Co-Rotating Interaction Regions at Mars with MSL/RAD

Henning Lohf1, Jan Kohler1, Cary J Zeitlin2, Bent Ehresmann3, Jingnan Guo4, Robert F Wimmer-Schweingruber5, Don Hassler6, Gunther Reitz7, Arik Posner8, Bernd Heber1, Jan Kristoffer Appel1, Daniel Matthiae7, David E Brinza9, Eddie Weigle10, Stephan I Boettcher5, Soenke Burmeister1, Cesar Martin-Garcia11, Eckart Boehm1, Scot CR Rafkin12, Henrik Kahanpää13, Javier Martín-Torres14 and María-Paz Zorzano15, (1)University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany, (2)Southwest Research Institute, Durham, NH, United States, (3)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Solar System Science & Exploration Division, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)University of Science and Technology of China, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Hefei, China, (5)University of Kiel, Institute for Experimental and Applied Physics, Kiel, Germany, (6)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, United States, (7)German Aerospace Center DLR Cologne, Cologne, Germany, (8)NASA Headquarters, SMD/Heliophysics Division, Washington, DC, United States, (9)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (10)Big Head Endian, Burden, KS, United States, (11)IEAP, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany, (12)Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (13)Finnish Meteorological Inst, Helsinki, Finland, (14)Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, Granada, Spain, (15)INTA-CSIC, Madrid, Spain
Abstract:
The measurements of the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) onboard Mars Science Laboratory's rover Curiosity have given us the very first opportunity to evaluate the radiation environment on the surface of Mars, which consists mostly of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) and secondary particles created in the Martian Atmosphere. The solar wind can have an influence on the modulation of the GCR, e.g. when the fast solar wind (~ 750 km/s) interacts with the slow solar wind (~ 400 km/s) at so-called Stream Interaction Regions (SIRs) resulting in an enhancement of the local magnetic field which could affect the shielding of GCRs. SIRs often occur periodically as Co-rotating Interaction Regions (CIRs) which may-be observed at Mars as a decrease in the radiation data measured by MSL/RAD. Considering the difference of the Earth-Mars orbit, we correlate these in-situ radiation data at Mars with the solar wind properties measured by spacecrafts at 1 AU, with the aim to eventually determine the solar wind properties at Mars based on MSL/RAD measurements.
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