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The solar wind plasma upstream of Mars observed by Tianwen-1: Comparison with Mars Express and MAVEN

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Abstract

On the great journey to Mars, China’s first planetary exploration mission, the Tianwen-1 came within 26 million kilometers of Mars from 31 October 2020 to 25 January 2021 and was getting closer to its destination, the red planet, in search of answers to the cataclysmic climate change that occurred in Martian history. Both the escape of the Martian atmosphere and the loss of surface water were firmly influenced by solar activities. Tianwen-1 provided a unique chance to depict the solar wind streams between Earth and Mars during the minimum of Solar Cycle 25. During the three-month cruise phase of Tianwen-1, the solar wind flows were successively observed at Earth, Tianwen-1, and Mars. After the field of view correction and noise reduction, the solar wind velocity and density measured by Tianwen-1 show good agreement with those at Earth and Mars. The results indicate that the performance of the ion analyzer onboard the Tianwen-1 orbiter is reliable and stable. It is worth looking forward to the joint observations of ion escape with other Mars probes in the following Martian years.

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Acknowledgements

The Tianwen-1 data set is available at the Planet Exploration Program Scientific Data Release System (http://202.106.152.98:8081/marsdata/web/datainfo/). We acknowledge the use of NASA/GSFC’s Space Physics Data Facility’s OMNIWeb service and OMNI data. The MAVEN data are publicly available in NASA’s Planetary Data System (https://pds-ppi.igpp.ucla.edu/mission/MAVEN). The authors would like to thank the MAVEN SWIA and STATIC teams for providing the data underlying this study. The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading and insightful comments and suggestions. This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA17010201), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42074207, 42104171), the Key Research Program of the Institute of Geology & Geophysics, CAS (Grant Nos. IGGCAS-201904, IGGCAS-202102), and the Key Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. ZDBS-SSW-TLC00103). Yong WEI is supported by the Thousand Young Talents Program of China. Limei YAN is supported by the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS (Grant No. 2021064).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Kai Fan, Limei Yan, Yong Wei, Fei He, Lihui Chai, Chongjing Yuan, Yuqi Wang, Jun Zhong, Zhaojin Rong, Zhonghua Yao & Yongxin Pan

  2. College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Kai Fan, Limei Yan, Yong Wei, Fei He, Lihui Chai, Chongjing Yuan, Yuqi Wang, Jun Zhong, Zhaojin Rong, Zhonghua Yao & Yongxin Pan

  3. National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Aibing Zhang, Linggao Kong, Wenya Li, Binbin Tang & Chi Wang

  4. Beijing Key Laboratory of Space Environment Exploration, Beijing, 100190, China

    Aibing Zhang & Linggao Kong

  5. Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Space Environment Situational Awareness, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Aibing Zhang & Linggao Kong

  6. Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research, Goettingen, 37077, Germany

    Markus Fränz

  7. State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Wenya Li, Binbin Tang & Chi Wang

  8. School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, China

    Jun Cui

  9. Institute of Space Physics and Applied Technology, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Jiansen He

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  1. Kai Fan
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Correspondence to Yong Wei.

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Fan, K., Yan, L., Wei, Y. et al. The solar wind plasma upstream of Mars observed by Tianwen-1: Comparison with Mars Express and MAVEN. Sci. China Earth Sci. 65, 759–768 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-021-9917-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-021-9917-0

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