Mass fractionation during transonic escape and implications for loss of water from Mars and Venus

Hydrodynamic escape of hydrogen from a planetary atmosphere can remove heavier gases as well as hydrogen, provided that the escape rate is sufficiently large. Here, analytic approximations for the degree of mass fractionation of a trace species during hydrodynamic escape are compared with accurate numerical solutions for the case of transonic outflow. Even the simplest analytic approximation is found to be surprisingly good, despite numerous assumptions made in the course of its derivation. The analytic approximations are most accurate when the ratio of molecular weights of the heavier and lighter constituents is large so that nonlinear terms in the momentum equation for the heavy constituent become small. The simplest analytic formula is readily generalized to the case where a heavy constituent is also a major species. Application of the generalized formula to hypothetical episodes of hydrodynamic escape from Venus and Mars suggests that both hydrogen and oxygen could have escaped; thus, substantial quantities of water may have been lost without the need to oxidize large amounts of the crust. Mars could have lost large amounts of rare gases in this manner, but if so it may also have lost significant quantities of carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Venusian argon and neon isotope ratios indicate that Venus lost little or no argon and 50% or less of its original complement of neon. Terrestrial noble gas patterns resemble those that would have resulted had an initially Venus-like Earth undergone a short-lived but locally very energetic escape event.     

Monte Carlo computations of the escape of atomic nitrogen from Mars

Monte Carlo simulations were carried out to compute the escape flux of atomic nitrogen for the low and high solar activity martian thermospheres. The total escape of atomic nitrogen at low and high solar activities was found to be 3.03×¹⁰⁵ and , respectively. The escape flux of atomic nitrogen at low and high solar activities from photodissociation of N₂ was found to be 2.75×¹⁰⁵ and , respectively. The remainder of the contribution is from dissociative recombination, which is only important at high solar activity were it comprises about 25% of the total escape. The relative contributions to the total N escape flux from thermal motion of the background atmosphere, winds and co-rotation, and photoionization and subsequent solar wind pickup are also considered here. We find that the total predicted escape fluxes are observed to increase by 20 and 25% at low and high solar activities owing to thermal motion of the background atmosphere. At low and high solar activities, we find that the co-rotation and wind velocities combined translate to a maximum transferable energy of ∼0.0103 and 0.0181 eV, respectively, and that the total escape flux contribution from winds and co-rotation is negligible. Photoionization was found to be a minor process only impacting those source atoms produced with energies close to the escape energy, between 1.5 and 2 eV. The contributions to the total escape fluxes at low and high solar activities from photoionization and subsequent solar wind pickup are found to be about 8 and 13%, respectively.     

Study of Exospheric Neutral Composition of Mars observed from Indian Mars Orbiter Mission

The exospheric composition data of Mars for the period 2014–15 has been extracted and analysed using the observations carried out by the MENCA (Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser) payload on-board the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) launched by India. The latitude, longitude, altitude and solar zenith angle coverage of the partial pressure values of different exospheric constituents are determined and assigned to create a new data-set with orbit-wise data assimilation particularly between 260 and 600 km altitude range. Apart from getting the results on mean individual orbits’ partial pressure profiles, the variations of the total as well as partial pressures are studied with respect to the distribution of the major atmospheric constituents and their dependence on solar activity. In particular, CO₂ and O variations are considered together for any differential effects due to photolysis and photo-ionisation. The results on the gradual reduction in densities due to decreasing daily mean sunspot numbers and strong response of CO₂ and O pressures to solar energetic particle events like that of 24 December 2014 are presented.     

Comparative analysis of Venus and Mars magnetotails

We have an unique opportunity to compare the magnetospheres of two non-magnetic planets as Mars and Venus with identical instrument sets Aspera-3 and Aspera-4 on board of the Mars Express and Venus Express missions. We have performed both statistical and case studies of properties of the magnetosheath ion flows and the flows of planetary ions behind both planets. We have shown that the general morphology of both magnetotails is generally identical. In both cases the energy of the light (H⁺) and the heavy (O⁺, etc.) ions decreases from the tail periphery (several keV) down to few eV in the tail center. At the same time the wake center of both planets is occupied by plasma sheet coincident with the current sheet of the tail. Both plasma sheets are filled by accelerated (500-1000 eV) heavy planetary ions. We report also the discovery of a new feature never observed before in the tails of non-magnetic planets: the plasma sheet is enveloped by consecutive layers of He⁺ and H⁺ with decreasing energies.     

Helium on Mars and Venus: EUVE observations and modeling

Long-exposure spectroscopy of Mars and Venus with the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) has revealed emissions of He 584 Å on both planets and He 537 Å/O⁺ 539 Å and He⁺ 304 Å on Venus. Our knowledge of the solar emission at 584 Å, eddy diffusion in Mars' upper atmosphere, electron energy distributions above Mars' ionopause, and hot oxygen densities in Mars' exosphere has been significantly improved since our analysis of the first EUVE observation of Mars [Krasnopolsky, Gladstone, 1996, Helium on Mars: EUVE and Phobos data and implications for Mars' evolution, J. Geophys. Res. 101, 15,765-15,772]. These new results and a more recent EUVE observation of Mars are the motivation for us to revisit the problem in this paper. We find that the abundance of helium in the upper atmosphere, where the main loss processes occur, is similar to that in the previous paper, though the mixing ratio in the lower and middle atmosphere is now better estimated at 10±6 ppm. Our estimate of the total loss of helium is almost unchanged at 8×¹⁰²³ s⁻¹, because a significant decrease in the loss by electron impact ionization above the ionopause is compensated by a higher loss in collisions with hot oxygen. We neglect the outgassing of helium produced by radioactive decay of U and Th because of the absence of current volcanism and a very low upper limit to the seepage of volcanic gases. The capture of solar wind α-particles is currently the only substantial source of helium on Mars, and its efficiency remains at 0.3. A similar analysis of EUV emissions from Venus results in a helium abundance in the upper atmosphere which is equal to the mean of the abundances measured previously with two optical and two mass spectrometers, and a derived helium mixing ratio in the middle and lower atmosphere of 9±6 ppm. Helium escape by ionization and sweeping out of helium ions by the solar wind above the ionopause is smaller than that calculated by Prather and McElroy [1983, Helium on Venus: implications for uranium and thorium, Science 220, 410-411] by a factor of 3. However, charge exchange of He⁺ ions with CO₂ and N₂ between the exobase and ionopause and collisions with hot oxygen ignored previously add to the total loss which appears to be at the level of 10⁶ cm⁻² s⁻¹ predicted by Prather and McElroy [1983, Science 220, 410-411]. The loss of helium is compensated by outgassing of helium produced by radioactive decay of U and Th and by the capture of the solar wind α-particles with an efficiency of 0.1. We also compare our derived α-particle capture efficiencies for Mars and Venus with observed X-ray emissions resulting from the charge exchange of solar wind heavy ions with the extended atmospheres on both planets [Dennerl et al., 2002, Discovery of X-rays from Venus with Chandra, Astron. Astrophys. 386, 319-330; Dennerl, 2002, Discovery of X-rays from Mars with Chandra, Astron. Astrophys. 394, 1119-1128]. The emissions from both disk and halo on Mars agree with our calculated values; however, we do not see a reasonable explanation for the X-ray halo emission on Venus. The ratio of the charge exchange efficiencies derived from the disk X-ray emissions of Mars and Venus is similar to the ratio of the capture efficiencies for these planets. The surprisingly bright emission of He⁺ at 304 Å observed by EUVE and Venera 11 and 12 suggests that charge exchange in the flow of the solar wind α-particles around the ionopause is much stronger than in the flow of α-particles into the ionosphere.     

Explaining the redox imbalance between the H and O escape fluxes at Mars by the oxidation of methane

From a comparison between the different observations of Martian methane existing today, including the new TES methane maps (Fonti and Marzo, 2010), we show that all sets of data are globally consistent with each other, and that a well definite seasonal cycle of methane has been at work for at least 10 yr. With a simple model of the balance between the loss fluxes of H and O, using up-to-date values of the escape fluxes, we show that the long-standing enigma of the imbalance between H and O escape fluxes may be solved by assuming that the missing sink of oxygen is the oxidation of methane. If no H₂ is released together with CH₄, a good agreement is found between the present CH₄ flux and the value imposed by the balance between H and O escape fluxes, an average over the last ≈10³ yr. If H₂ is released together with CH₄, as expected if CH₄ originates in serpentinization, the average level of CH₄ during the last 10³ yr should have been at least ten times lower than the present one. The lack of present H₂ release could suggest a long-term storage of methane in the subsurface under the form of clathrates, whereas H₂ has been lost to the atmosphere shortly after being produced. We suggest that the thin layer of CO₂ ice covering the permanent southern polar cap could result from the release of methane since the end of the last obliquity transition (time scale: 1 Myr), at an average rate of 0.1 Mt yr^?1, consistent with the values derived from: (i) the present observations of methane (time scale: 10 yr), (ii) the estimate from the observed imbalance between the H and O escape fluxes (time scale: 1 kyr). If so, the present release of methane from subsurface clathrates would have acted at a similar rate since at least 3 Myr.     

A sensitive search for nitric oxide in the lower atmospheres of Venus and Mars: Detection on Venus and upper limit for Mars

High-resolution spectra of Venus and Mars at the NO fundamental band at 5.3 μm with resolving power ν/δν=76,000 were acquired using the TEXES spectrograph at NASA IRTF on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The observed spectrum of Venus covered three NO lines of the P-branch. One of the lines is strongly contaminated, and the other two lines reveal NO in the lower atmosphere at a detection level of 9 sigma. A simple photochemical model for NO and N at 50-112 km was coupled with a radiative transfer code to simulate the observed equivalent widths of the NO and some CO₂ lines. The derived NO mixing ratio is 5.5±1.5 ppb below 60 km and its flux is . Predissociation of NO at the (0-0) 191 nm and (1-0) 183 nm bands of the δ-system and the reaction with N are the only important loss processes for NO in the lower atmosphere of Venus. The photochemical impact of the measured NO abundance is significant and should be taken into account in photochemical modeling of the Venus atmosphere. Lightning is the only known source of NO in the lower atmosphere of Venus, and the detection of NO is a convincing and independent proof of lightning on Venus. The required flux of NO is corrected for the production of NO and N by the cosmic ray ionization and corresponds to the lightning energy deposition of . For a flash energy on Venus similar to that on the Earth (∼¹⁰⁹ J), the global flashing rate is ∼90 s⁻¹ and ∼6 km⁻² y⁻¹ which is in reasonable agreement with the existing optical observations. The observed spectrum of Mars covered three NO lines of the R-branch. Two of these lines are contaminated by CO₂ lines, and the line at 1900.076 cm⁻¹ is clean and shows some excess over the continuum. Some photochemical reactions may result in a significant excitation of NO (v=1) in the lowest 20 km on Mars. However, quenching of NO (v=1) by CO₂ is very effective below 40 km. Excitation of NO (v=1) in the collisions with atomic oxygen is weak because of the low temperature in the martian atmosphere, and we do not see any explanation of a possible emission of NO at 5.3 μm. Therefore the data are treated as the lack of absorption with a 2 sigma upper limit of 1.7 ppb to the NO abundance in the lower atmosphere of Mars. This limit is above the predictions of photochemical models by a factor of 3.     

The escape of natural satellites from Mercury and Venus

Kumar's (1977) suggestion that the slow rotations of Mercury and Venus are in part due to natural satellites that subsequently escaped is discussed. A more useful criterion for the escape of such satellites than that previously proposed is derived, and it is shown that this distance is sufficiently small for Mercury and Venus to make the escape of satellites a likely possibility.     

The escape of natural satellites from Mercury and Venus

It is suggested that the slow rotations of Mercury and Venus may be connected with the absence of natural satellites around them. If Mercury or Venus possessed a satellite at the time of formation, the tidal evolution would have caused the satellite to recede. At a sufficiently large distance from the planet, the Sun's gravitational influence makes the satellite orbit unstable. The natural satellites of Mercury and Venus might have escaped as a consequence of this instability.     

The production of nitrogen atoms on Mars and their escape

Quantitative calculations of the escape rate of nitrogen by photodissociation and photoionization, by photoelectron impact processes, by chemical reactions and by dissociative recombination are reported. It is shown that the predicted present escape rate of 2.0 × 10⁵ atoms cm^?2 S^?1 is consistent with the measured ¹⁵N/¹⁴N isotope ratio. A minimum of 4.0 × 10²² cm^?2 S^?1 is obtained for the initial reservoir of N₂. The production rates of N(⁴S) and N(²D) atoms in the atmosphere are obtained and the altitude profile of N(²D) is calculated.     

Far-infrared spectral observations of Venus,Mars, and Jupiter

Spectra of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter between 45 and 115 μm have been obtained at a resolving power of ～10, observing from the NASA Lear Jet at an altitude of 13.7 km. The results are calibrated with lunar observations, and show Mars and Venus to have relatively constant brightness temperatures over this wavelength region, with Venus appearing somewhat warmer at longer wavelengths. The brightness temperature of Jupiter decreases slightly toward longer wavelengths.     

The regulation of hydrogen and oxygen escape from Mars

It is shown that under present conditions the Jeans escape flux of hydrogen from Mars in the form of H and H₂ is constrained to be the same as twice the non-thermal (McElroy, 1972) escape of O atoms. The mediation of the chemical chain that recombines CO₂ plays an essential role in regulating the escape of hydrogen to match that of oxygen, confirming a mechanism postulated by McElroy and Donahue (1972). It is also shown that if the oxygen flux changes, a change in the O₂ mixing ratio results and the consequence is to induce a large change in the odd hydrogen concentration, and consequently in H₂ production and hydrogen escape. The effect is to stabilize the hydrogen escape flux at twice the O flux. It is shown that surface chemistry should not change the operation of this mechanism but has consequences for the eddy coefficient variation at low altitudes. There is a strong correlation between low humidity, large solar zenith angles and large O₃ abundances. The effect of argon in a mixing ratio as large as 0.3 on these results is also investigated.     

Planetary ENA Imaging: Venus and a comparison with Mars

We present simulated images of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) produced in charge exchange collisions between solar wind protons and neutral atoms in the exosphere of Venus, and make a comparison with earlier results for Mars. The images are found to be dominated by two local maxima. One produced by charge exchange collisions in the solar wind, upstream of the bow shock, and the other close to the dayside ionopause. The simulated ENA fluxes at Venus are lower than those obtained in similar simulations of ENA images at Mars at solar minimum conditions, and close to the fluxes at Mars at solar maximum. Our numerical study shows that the ENA flux decreases with an increasing ionopause altitude. The influence of the Venus nighttime hydrogen bulge on the ENA emission is small.     

Estimation of the escape of photoelectrons from Mars in 2004 liberated by the ionization of carbon dioxide and atomic oxygen

Photoelectron peaks in the atmosphere of Mars caused by the ionization of carbon dioxide and atomic oxygen by solar 30.4 nm photons have been observed by the Electron Spectrometer (ELS), a component of the Mars Express (MEx) Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms (ASPERA-3) experiment. Ionization mostly occurs at the Mars exobase with the majority of the photoionized electron flux trapped in the remanent and induced magnetic field, with a portion of that flux escaping the planet down its tail. Since Mars is overall charge neutral, the number of electrons must be identical to the number of ion charges which escape the planet. An estimate of the fraction of the total number of escaping electrons is obtained for the year 2004, specifically those produced by the ionization of carbon dioxide and atomic oxygen by solar 30.4 nm photons. In achieving this process, an illustrative example pass is used to show how the electron spectrum is adjusted for the potential on the spacecraft; then the region of the electron spectrum which shows photoelectron peaks is integrated over energy, yielding a flux of 5.74 × 10⁶ electrons/(cm² s sr). This technique is then applied to a subset of 22 sample averaged spectra from the 2004 data (5 January 2004 through 25 January 2005), yielding an average result of 4.15 × 10⁶ electrons/(cm² s sr) for the 22 cases. The observation cone of 33.75° is used to integrate over solid angle (assuming the flux is constant), giving 4.39 × 10⁶ electrons/(cm² s). This average value was taken as representative of the full data interval. Frequency of occurrence statistics showing about a 6.2% occurrence rate for the 2004 data is applied to give an average escape flux from Mars of 2.72 × 10⁵ electrons/(cm² s) during 2004. By estimating the outflow area as 1.16 × 10¹⁸ cm² at X = −1.5 R_Mars the electron escape rate of 3.14 × 10²³ electrons/s is obtained. Thus about 9.92 × 10³⁰ electrons or 16.5 Mmole of electrons escaped Mars during 2004 due to the ionization of carbon dioxide and atomic oxygen by the He 30.4 nm line. Due to the caveats of the analysis, these derived escape rates should be considered lower limits on the total electron escape rate from Mars.     

Parametric analysis of modeled ion escape from Mars

We develop a parametric fit to the results of a detailed magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) study of the response of ion escape rates (O⁺, and ) to strongly varied solar forcing factors, as a way to efficiently extend the MHD results to different conditions. We then use this to develop a second, evolutionary model of solar forced ion escape. We treat the escape fluxes of ion species at Mars as proportional to the product of power laws of four factors - that of the EUV flux R_euv, the solar wind particle density R_ρ, its velocity (squared) R_v², and the interplanetary magnetic field pressure R_B², where forcing factors are expressed in units of the current epoch-averaged values. Our parametric model is: , where ?(i) is the escape flux of ion i. We base our study on the results of just six provided MHD model runs employing large forcing factor variations, and thus construct a successful, first-order parametric model of the MHD program. We perform a five-dimensional least squares fit of this power law model to the MHD results to derive the flux normalizations and the indices of the solar forcing factors. For O⁺, we obtain the values, 1.73 × 10²⁴ s⁻¹, 0.782, 0.251, 0.382, and 0.214, for ?₀, α, β, γ, and δ, respectively. For , the corresponding values are 1.68 × 10²⁴ s⁻¹, −0.393, 0.798, 0.967, and 0.533. For , they are 8.66 × 10²² s⁻¹, −0.427, 1.083, 1.214, and 0.690. The fit reproduces the MHD results to an average error of about 5%, suggesting that the power laws are broadly representative of the MHD model results. Our analysis of the MHD model shows that by itself an increase in R_EUV enhances O⁺ loss, but suppresses the escape of and , whereas increases in solar wind (i.e., in , and R_B², with R_euv constant) favors the escape of heavier ions more than light ions. The ratios of escaping ions detectable at Mars today can be predicted by this parametric fit as a function of the solar forcing factors. We also use the parametric model to compute escape rates over martian history. This second parametric model expresses ion escape functions of one variable (per ion), ?(i) = ?₀(i)(t/t₀)^−ξ(i). The ξ(i) are linear combinations of the epoch-averaged ion escape sensitivities, which are seen to increase with ion mass. We integrate the and oxygen ion escape rates over time, and find that in the last 3.85 Gyr, Mars would have lost about mbars of , and of water (from O⁺ and ) from ion escape.     

Atmospheric ion wakes of Venus and Mars in the solar wind

A model has been developed for the currents induced in the ionospheres of Venus and Mars by the flowing magnetized solar wind in a previous paper (Cloutier and Daniell, 1973). The altitudes of the ionopauses on both planets, determined from the electrodynamical models of the previous paper, are used here to calculate the total rates of atmospheric mass loss to the solar wind for Venus and Mars. These loss rates are compared to the rates calculated by Michel (1971) based upon the limit of mass loading of the solar wind flow determined from hydrodynamic constraints. The distributions of planetary ions in the downstream wakes of Venus and Mars are calculated, and the interpretation of ion spectrometer measurements from close planetary encounters is discussed.     

Atmospheric acoustics of Titan, Mars, Venus, and Earth

Planetary atmospheres are complex dynamical systems whose structure, composition, and dynamics intimately affect the propagation of sound. Thus, acoustic waves, being coupled directly to the medium, can effectively probe planetary environments. Here we show how the acoustic absorption and speed of sound in the atmospheres of Venus, Mars, Titan, and Earth (as predicted by a recent molecular acoustics model) mirror the different environments. Starting at the surface, where the sound speed ranges from ∼200 m/s for Titan to ∼410 m/s for Venus, the vertical sound speed profiles reveal differences in the atmospheres' thermal layering and composition. The absorption profiles are relatively smooth for Mars, Titan, and Earth while Venus stands out with a noticeable attenuation dip occurring between 40 and 100 km. We also simulate a descent module sampling the sound field produced by a low-frequency “event” near the surface noting the occurrence of acoustic quiet zones.     

Comments about the direct perturbations of Venus and Mars on the Moon's motion

In a previous paper (Standaert, 1980) we have described an algorithm to compute the direct perturbation of the planets on the Moon's motion. A short summary of this algorithm is presented in Section 2 of this paper. Our first results permit us to present some complements and comments about these computations.The algorithm is based upon the Lie transform method and is implemented using Chapront's ELP as solution of the main problem with the partial derivatives of Henrard's Semi-Analytical Lunar Ephemeris (SALE), and Bretagnon's mean Keplerian orbit.An analysis of truncation errors in intermediate results is presented including the resonance effects. The final accuracy of the solution is intended to be about 0.0005 for terms of period up to 2000 yr in the case of Venus and up to 5000 yr in the case of Mars.The effects of second-order terms in the masses are investigated. Only those depending upon the second derivatives of the mean motions are found to be significant to the given accuracy and are included.Proceedings of the Conference on Analytical Methods and Ephemerides: Theory and Observations of the Moon and Planets. Facultés universitaires Notre Dame de la Paix, Namur, Belgium, 28–31 July, 1980.     

Temperature effect on the photodissociation rates in the atmospheres of Mars and Venus

The available solar flux at a given altitude in the atmospheres of Mars and Venus is attenuated mainly by CO₂ (molecular absorption and Rayleigh scattering) with an extra contribution due to SO₂ on Venus. The dissociation cross section of CO₂ depends on temperature. At temperatures appropriate for these atmospheres (～250°K), the cross sections are about 15% lower than those at room conditions (Y.L. Yung and W.B. De More, 1982, Icarus, 51, 199). It is shown that this temperature effect cannot be neglected in the evaluation of photolysis rates. Calculations of the photodissociation coefficients of CO₂, SO₂, HCl, and H₂O are presented. For example, at the surface of Mars, the coefficient of H₂O is nearly multiplied by a factor of 10!