The Martian ionosphere: comparison of a global climate model with MARSIS data
Résumé
We present here the comparison of the electron den- sity profiles predicted by a 3D global climate model (GCM), the Mars GCM developed at the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD-MGCM) [4], with the measurements from the instrument MARSIS on board Mars Express [5]. The observations were ob- tained during 5 Martian Years (MY), from MY27 to MY31 (mid 2005-end of 2013). The model was run using the observed day-to-day variability of the UV solar flux and of the dust load during that period. We focus the comparison on two parameters: the electron density at the main peak, and the altitude of the peak. Special attention will be paid to the variability of these two parameters with different geophysical parameters (latitude, SZA, ...), which can provide interesting in- formation about the neutral upper atmosphere of Mars and its interaction with the UV solar radiation.