Planetary surface and upper atmosphere investigations using plasma and ENA sensors
Yoshifumi Futaana
Swedish Institute of Space Physics
This talk is given on the occation that the Japanese space physics society (Society of Geomagnetism and Earth, Planetary and Space Science) SGEPSS with ca 700 members awarded Dr Futaana the "Obayashi Award", which is given to 3 young scientists (up to 35 years old) each year. The award ceremony took place during the annual SGEPSS meeting (30/10-3/11, 2010) in Japan
Abstract
I will talk a summary of the following three scientific topics:
First ENA observations at Mars: Subsolar ENA jet
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This is one of the first observations of ENAs in the vicinity of Mars.
We will show observations recorded by an ENA sensor, NPD, on board Mars Express
to discuss the ENA environment in the vicinity of Mars.
We found a jet-like structure of the ENA emission from the subsolar region of Mars.
This is yet unexplained feature of Martian ENA environment.
Low energy neutral atoms imaging of the Moon
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We will show the calculation of ENA flux from the lunar surface based on the idea
that the solar wind protons sputters ENAs of surface materials.
Based on this evaluation, we implemented an ENA sensor, CENA, for lunar exploration
Chandrayaan-1 by India.
The CENA data was successfully obtained in 2009. We also introduce results from CENA.
Mars Express and Venus Express multi-point observations of geoeffective solar flare events in December 2006
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The largest geoeffective solar flare after the launches of Mars Express and Venus Express occurred in December 2006.
The flare affects a vast region of the inner solar system. Signatures associated with the flare have been detected
by all the three planets.
Here we will show signatures of the solar energetic particles (SEP) and the interplanetary shock associated with the flare.
We also show that the oxygen outflow from Mars increased by a factor of 5-10 during the SEP event.
This observation suggest the SEPs play significant role for the oxygen outflow from unmagnetized planets.
Created 2011-01-19 11:44:12 by Mats Holmström Last changed 2011-01-19 11:44:12 by Mats Holmström
