Massive Solar Storm Reveals How Mars Is Losing Its Atmosphere

There have been quite a few puzzles surrounding Mars for many years. The planet had its atmosphere and water, but now it has become a frozen desert. It is thought that one reason why Mars has changed is the solar wind, the constant stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun. And the next mystery to be solved is how the solar wind continues to strip away the atmosphere of Mars, and here comes a surprising discovery.

Inside the Study: How a Solar Storm Revealed Hidden Physics

The research conducted at West Virginia University and published in Nature Communications found that the MAVEN orbiter recorded five large-scale structures travelling down into the ionosphere at a height of 185 km on 10 December 2023 as a result of the impact of an interplanetary coronal mass ejection on Mars hours earlier. It was observed that at the point of increased steepness of the structures, there was a 30-40 percent reduction in plasma density due to the compression of ionospheric particles tailward as a consequence of the Zwan-Wolf effect.

A Glimpse into a Wider Pattern

The study shows that this effect is expected to occur continuously in the Martian ionosphere but usually is not detected by normal plasma instruments. It was only with a great solar storm that it could be seen. The atmosphere on Mars is extremely vulnerable to space weather, in contrast to Earth, which is protected by a global magnetic field, and this is a concern for future human Mars explorations. The authors say that unmagnetized bodies with ionospheres like Venus, Titan, etc., may undergo the same process.