Abstract
Due to the lower ionospheric thermal pressure and existence of the
crustal magnetism at Mars, the Martian ionopause is expected to behave
differently from the ionopause at Venus. We study the solar wind
interaction and pressure balance at the ionopause of Mars using both in
situ and remote sounding measurements from the MARSIS (Mars Advanced
Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) instrument on the Mars
Express orbiter. We show that the magnetic pressure usually dominates
the thermal pressure to hold off the solar wind in the ionopause at
Mars, with only 13% unmagnetized ionopauses observed over a 11-year
period. We also find that the ionopause altitude decreases as the normal
component of the solar wind dynamic pressure increases. Moreover, our
results show that the ionopause thickness at Mars is mainly determined
by the ion gyromotion and equivalent to about 5.7 ion gyroradii.