Aurorae on Mars are a whole other affair compared to the ones we have on Earth. The Red Planet doesn’t have a magnetic field, so part of the solar wind just slams into the thin Martian atmosphere, creating an ultraviolet light show. At least that’s what NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) can see. And in February, it saw fireworks.
The aurorae that covered the whole planet were recorded by the observatory, taking place on February 3 and 4, 7 to 10, and 15 and 16. The increased activity is due to the Sun approaching its maximum. During this period, the level of solar activity increases, including coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These events add more energetic particles to the solar wind, making a bigger splash when they hit Mars.
“Mars is experiencing its greatest level of auroral activity in the past 10 years,” Nick Schneider of the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), told Spaceweather.com. “In February alone, there were three episodes of global auroras–an ‘aurora hat trick’ we’ve never seen before.”
Spaceweather.com actually predicted the events by looking at CMEs released by the Sun and matching them with the position of Mars. MAVEN has been around Mars for less than a decade, getting to the Red Planet just after the peak of the last solar cycle. This time around, it’s following the effects of solar activity as things get very exciting. And what researchers learn now, will affect future missions on Mars.
“For humans and assets on the Martian surface, we don’t have a solid handle on what the effect is from radiation during solar activity,” MAVEN Principal Investigator Shannon Curry of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics said in a statement. “I’d actually love to see the ‘big one’ at Mars this year — a large event that we can study to understand solar radiation better before astronauts go to Mars.”
Hopefully Curry will get her wish and we will get more brilliant views of aurorae on Mars.
Source Link: Watch Mars Experiencing A Never-Before-Seen “Hat Trick” Of Global Aurorae