loading page

Mars as a Comet: Local Generation of Mirror Modes by Pickup Protons
  • +9
  • Cyril L. Simon Wedlund,
  • Christian Xavier Mazelle,
  • Karim Meziane,
  • Cesar Bertucci,
  • Martin Volwerk,
  • Luis Preisser,
  • Daniel Schmid,
  • Jasper S. Halekas,
  • James P. Mcfadden,
  • David Mitchell,
  • Jared Espley,
  • Pierre Henri
Cyril L. Simon Wedlund
Space Research Institute, OEAW

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile
Christian Xavier Mazelle
IRAP; Université de Toulouse; CNRS; CNES; UPS-OMP; Toulouse, France
Author Profile
Karim Meziane
University of New Brunswick
Author Profile
Cesar Bertucci
Institute for Astronomy and Space Physics - IAFE
Author Profile
Martin Volwerk
Space Research Institute, OEAW
Author Profile
Luis Preisser
Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Author Profile
Daniel Schmid
Space Research Institute Graz (IWF), Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
Author Profile
Jasper S. Halekas
University of Iowa
Author Profile
James P. Mcfadden
University of California, Berkeley
Author Profile
David Mitchell
University of California, Berkeley
Author Profile
Jared Espley
NASA GSFC
Author Profile
Pierre Henri
LPC2E, CNRS, Université d'Orléans
Author Profile

Abstract

Mirror mode structures are born from a plasma instability driven by a large temperature anisotropy and appear downstream of planetary and interplanetary shocks, in their magnetosheath. As magnetic bottles imprisoning dense and hot plasma, they are usually observed downstream of their region of formation, where the anisotropy is large and free energy is available, implying that they are advected with the plasma flow to the detection region. At Earth and other planets, the quasi-perpendicular shock provides the plasma with the necessary heating along the perpendicular direction to the local magnetic field. At Mars, which boasts an extended exosphere, an additional source of temperature anisotropy exists, through unstable ring-beam velocity distributions, that is, through ions locally ionised and subsequently picked up by the local electric fields. We report here for the first time an example of near locally-generated mirror mode structures at Mars using the full plasma instrument suite on board the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission. We present three events in quasi-perpendicular and quasi-parallel shock conditions with a variable exosphere, discuss the locality of the mirror modes excited and show that, in addition to the classic quasi-perpendicular source of anisotropy, another source exists, that is, unstable pickup protons. The existence at Mars of this extra ion anisotropy-generating mechanism is reminiscent of comets.
26 Sep 2024Submitted to ESS Open Archive
26 Sep 2024Published in ESS Open Archive