The Martian oxygen green line dayglow: response to solar activity
| dc.contributor.author | Soret, L. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Robin, H. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Gérard, J.-C. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Gkouvelis, L. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Thomas, I. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Ristic, B. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Willame, Y. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Hubert, B. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Vandaele, A.C. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Mason, J.P. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Daerden, F. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Patel, M.R. | |
| dc.date | 2025 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-07-13T18:29:29Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-07-13T18:29:29Z | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://orfeo.belnet.be/handle/internal/14083 | |
| dc.description | The Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer (UVIS) instrument of the Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery (NOMAD) aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) observes the Martian dayglow at 557.7 nm, which corresponds to the oxygen green line emission. Soret et al. (2022) analyzed a full Martian year of dayside limb observations and implied that some variability could be observed in both the altitude and intensity of the green dayglow. In this work, we take advantage of three Martian years of observations to analyze the evolution of the peak brightness and peak altitude of the oxygen green line emission during a period of increasing solar activity. We show that the limb brightness can change by ∼70 % from one Martian year to the other. The green line brightness is highly correlated with both seasonal and solar activity effects. The brightest intensities of the oxygen green line occur near perihelion and when solar insolation is highest. However, we observe that the peak altitude is highly correlated with season (maximum at perihelion) but it does not show a dependence on solar activity. Finally, we compare the evolution of the green line peak altitude with that of the 0.39-μbar pressure level provided by the Mars Climate Database (MCD) v6.1 and show that the calculated CO2 density can be overestimated by up to a factor of 2, especially in the northern hemisphere. We conclude that dayside observations of the green line emission are a powerful tool to constrain global circulation models and remotely monitor the dynamics of the Mars atmosphere over time and season in the 70–100 km region. | |
| dc.language | eng | |
| dc.title | The Martian oxygen green line dayglow: response to solar activity | |
| dc.type | Article | |
| dc.subject.frascati | Physical sciences | |
| dc.audience | Scientific | |
| dc.subject.free | Planetary atmospheres | |
| dc.subject.free | Mars | |
| dc.subject.free | Solar activity | |
| dc.subject.free | Atomic spectroscopy | |
| dc.subject.free | Line intensities | |
| dc.source.title | Icarus | |
| dc.source.volume | 441 | |
| dc.source.page | A116707 | |
| Orfeo.peerreviewed | Yes | |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1016/j.icarus.2025.116707 | |
| dc.identifier.url |