Several outstanding issues concerning the ionosphere of Mars

Abstract

Several outstanding issues concerning the ionosphere of Mars can be addressed with the support of radio occultation observations acquired near the solar zenith angle limit of 45$$^{\circ }$$ ∘ . First, two fundamentally different types of instruments (topside radar sounding, radio occultations) have been used to characterize how the subsolar peak density changes over the solar cycle. Here we find that their results for solar minimum and solar maximum values of peak density are consistent. This verifies that systematic errors do not affect peak density measurements from either type of instrument. Second, reported descriptions of how the peak altitude changes with solar zenith angle are inconsistent. Specifically, values reported by radio occultation and radar sounder instruments for the characteristic lengthscale used to describe changes in peak altitude with solar zenith angle vary by a factor of two. We find that the change in peak altitude with solar zenith angle is governed by a lengthscale that is close to the thermospheric scale height, as predicted theoretically. However, this behavior is only apparent when the Mars–Sun distance is held fixed. Reported smaller values of this lengthscale, which are not consistent with theoretical expectations, were adversely affected by using near-terminator peak altitude values only, which display marked variability. Third, Viking Lander entry science data have been interpreted to suggest that the M1 layer is not present in the ionosphere at solar zenith angles of 45$$^{\circ }$$ ∘ or smaller. We show radio occultation observations at 45$$^{\circ }$$ ∘ in which the M1 layer is present. This suggests that the basic structure of the dayside ionosphere remains the same at all solar zenith angles. Graphical Abstract