P049-02
Space Weather at Mars: 5.5 Years of MAVEN Observations
Friday, 11 December 2020: 05:35
Virtual
Christina O Lee1, David Brain2, Janet G Luhmann3, Bruce Martin Jakosky4, Jasper S Halekas5, Francis Gerard Eparvier6, Philip Chamberlin7, Edward Thiemann7, Jacob Gruesbeck8, Jared R Espley9, Nicholas McCord Schneider10, Davin E Larson11, Ali Rahmati3 and Robert J Lillis12, (1)Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (2)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)University of California Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States, (4)University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, UNITED STATES, (5)University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa City, IA, United States, (6)University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (7)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (8)University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, United States, (9)Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (10)Univ Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (11)Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States, (12)Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
Abstract:
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft has been continuously observing the variability of solar soft X-rays and EUV irradiance, monitoring the upstream solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field conditions, and measuring the fluxes of solar energetic ions and electrons since its arrival at Mars in September 2014, towards the end of the maximum phase of Solar Cycle 24. Relevant observations from the instrument suite include quiescent and flaring solar soft X-ray and EUV irradiance based on measurements by the solar Extreme Ultraviolet Monitor (EUVM), the fluxes of solar energetic particles accelerated by shocks at the Sun and in the heliosphere from the Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) instrument, the solar wind plasma parameters by the Solar Wind Ion Analyzer (SWIA), the vector measurements of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) by the Magnetometer (MAG), and the auroral observations by the Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph (IUVS).
This presentation will review observations of space weather at Mars over the past 5.5 years made by MAVEN, encompassing the maximum, declining, and minimum phases of Solar Cycle 24 to the start of Solar Cycle 25. The comprehensive set of observations at Mars has given us the opportunity to better characterize the local EUV and solar wind conditions during active and quiet space weather periods and to analyze the response of the Martian system to the upstream disturbances. Some of the Mars-impacting space weather events observed by MAVEN include the heating of the neutral atmosphere triggered by large flares, the perturbation of the Martian system and ion escape enhancements due to the passage and interaction of an interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) and stream interaction regions (SIRs), and the triggering of diffuse auroral emission in the lower Martian atmosphere due to the precipitation of electrons during a SEP event.
