Comet Siding Spring's influence on the Mars' ionosphere

Date Issued
2017
Author(s)
Witasse, O.
•
Sánchez-Cano, B.
•
Molina-Cuberos, G.
•
Blelly, P. -L.
•
Lester, M.
•
Leblanc, F.
•
Modolo, R.
•
Chaufray, J. -Y.
•
Gronoff, G.
•
Espley, J.
•
Costa, M.
•
Abstract
On October 19th 2014, Mars experienced a close encounter with Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), at a distance of 138,000 km. The coma washed over Mars and the planet passed directly through the cometary debris stream, producing significant effects in Mars' upper atmosphere. We present here an overview of ionospheric measurements performed during the comet encounter with Mars Express, MAVEN, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. We discuss the comet's influence on the ionosphere through different processes that work at different altitudes: magnetospheric disturbances, impact of cometary pick-up ions, and deposition of cometary dust.
Coverage
European Planetary Science Congress 2017
Start page
EPSC2017-131
Conferenece
European Planetary Science Congress 2017
Conferenece place
Riga, Lettonia
Conferenece date
17–22 September, 2017
Uri
Url
Ads BibCode
2017EPSC...11..131W
Rights
open.access
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