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On The Escape Of Oxygen And Hydrogen From Mars, Jane L. Fox
On The Escape Of Oxygen And Hydrogen From Mars, Jane L. Fox
Physics Faculty Publications
Escape rates of oxygen atoms from dissociative recombination of O2+ above the Martian exobase are computed in light of new information from ab initio calculations of the dissociative recombination process, and our recently revised understanding of the Martian dayside ionosphere. Only about 60% of the dissociative recombinations occur in channels in which the O atoms are released with energies in excess of the escape velocity. Futhermore, we find that the computed escape fluxes for O depend greatly on the nature of the ion loss process that has been found necessary to reproduce the topside ion density profiles measured …
The Production And Escape Of Nitrogen Atoms On Mars, Jane L. Fox
The Production And Escape Of Nitrogen Atoms On Mars, Jane L. Fox
Physics Faculty Publications
We have computed the production rates and densities of odd nitrogen species in the Martian atmosphere using updated rate coefficients and a revised ionosphere-thermosphere model. We find that the computed densities of NO are somewhat smaller than those measured by Viking 1, but reasonable agreement can be obtained by assuming that the rate coefficient for loss of odd nitrogen in the reaction of N with NO is smaller at temperatures that prevail in the lower Martian thermosphere (about 130–160 K) than the standard value, which applies to temperatures of 200–400 K. We have also modeled the escape fluxes of N …