Establishing a Best Practice for SDTrimSP Simulations of Solar Wind Ion Sputtering

The Solar Wind Ion Analyzer for MAVEN

The Solar Wind Ion Analyzer (SWIA) on the MAVEN mission will measure the solar wind ion flows around Mars, both in the upstream solar wind and in the magnetosheath and tail regions inside the bow shock. The solar wind flux provides one of the key energy inputs that can drive atmospheric escape from the Martian system, as well as in part controlling the structure of the magnetosphere through whi...

Mass fractionation of the lunar surface by solar wind sputtering

The sputtering of the lunar surface by the solar wind is examined as a possible mechanism of mass fractionation. Simple arguments based on current theories of sputtering and the ballistics of the sputtered atoms suggest that most ejected atoms will have sufficiently high energy to escape lunar gravity. However, the fraction of atoms which falls back to the surface is enriched in the heavier ato...

Sputtering of theMartian atmosphere by solar wind pick-up ions

Monte Carlo models are used to describe the interaction between the incident pick-up ions and the Mars neutral atmosphere. The sputtered population inside the corona and escaping particles are described using a modi4ed 3D test particle model, whereas, the heating e6ect due to the incident 7ux is described using a 2D Direct Simulation Monte Carlo. These results show that the standard 1D models o...

Modeling of the O + pickup ion sputtering efficiency 1 dependence on solar wind conditions for the Martian

solar wind with differential ion flow

The propagation of dissipationless, hydromagnetic, purely toroidal Alfvén waves in a realistic background three-fluid solar wind with axial symmetry and differential proton-alpha flow is investigated. The short wavelength WKB approximation is not invoked. Instead, the equations that govern the wave transport are derived from standard multi-fluid equations in the five-moment approximation. The A...