Atmosphere of Mars
- 10 December 1965
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 150 (3702) , 1445-1448
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.150.3702.1445
Abstract
The Martian ionospheric observations made by Mariner IV are interpreted in terms of an atmospheric model. The ion peak is identified as an F2 peak, that is, as a maximum whose profile is controlled by ambipolar diffusion. The principal features of the resulting atmospheric model are that the atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide, the temperature is very low, and there is no thermosphere. Surface temperature is 210°K. The tropopause occurs at an altitude of 14 kilometers and has a temperature of 140°K. Above the tropopause, the temperature decreases with altitude at the rate of 0.64°C km -1 , following the solid carbon dioxide vapor-pressure curve up to 100 km, where the temperature is 85°K; at higher altitudes the temperature is isothermal.This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- Occultation Experiment: Results of the First Direct Measurement of Mars's Atmosphere and IonosphereScience, 1965
- Pressure and CO2 content of the Martian atmosphere: A critical discussionReviews of Geophysics, 1965
- An Analysis of the Spectrum of Mars.The Astrophysical Journal, 1964
- Recent infrared spectra of Mars and VenusJournal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 1963
- Equilibrium electron distributions in the ionospheric F2-layerJournal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics, 1960