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| Titel |
Martian Atmospheric Sputtering |
| VerfasserIn |
Giovanna Rinaldi, Alessandro Mura, Stefano Orsini, Valeria Mangano |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2011
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 13 (2011) |
| Datensatznummer |
250055574
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The main topic of our work is the study of the Martian atmospheric sputtering. Atmospheric
sputtering is a process occurring when a energetic particle impinges on atmospheric particles
and the atoms, located in the upper regions of the atmosphere, must overcome the
gravitational attraction of the planet. During the process, the energy can be transferred by
either elastic or inelastic collisions
To study this process we develop a Montecarlo single-particle model that simulates the
cascade process producing sputtering emission. In our model we include energy-dependent
differential cross section for i) elastic collision, ii) ionization; ii) electron-loss; iv) charge
exchange. These cross section values are derived by an accurate review of the current
literature
In the present study, we also show the comparison between our result and existing
theoretical models and observations. The data are taken by the NPD instrument, part of the
Analyzer of Space Plasma and EneRgetic Atoms (ASPERA-3) on board Mars Express. After
calibrating the model with NPD data, the simulation results show a remarkable contribution
of atmospheric sputtering (~ 1023atom/s) to the planetary atmospheric loss in agreement with
the estimations of previous works. The comparison between the observed flux and
simulations shows us that the intensities are very similar (flux is around 105 cm-2/sr/s). |
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