Another
of our research interests is the role that solar disturbances may have
in causing variability in
the
ionosphere of Mars. Mars has a much weaker magnetic field than the Earth's,
therefore solar
disturbances
may contribute significantly to variability in electron density on Mars,
especially above 150 km.
The
current Mars Global Surveyor mission has provided a huge database of electron
density height profiles
of
the Martian ionosphere. Here's an example:
Here
are 7 profiles (plus a mean) of the Martian ionosphere during
28
December 1998, obtained from measurements by the Radio Science
experiment
aboard the MGS. The inversions were derived by the
Stanford
University Radio Science group.