HR: 1340h
AN: SH43A-1155    [Abstracts]
TI: Simulation of Atmospheric/Ionospheric Escape from Unmagnetized Bodies
AU: * Brecht, S H
EM: sbrecht@pacbell.net
AF: Bay Area Research Corp., P.O. Box 366, Orinda, CA 94563 United States
AU: Ledvina, S A
EM: ledvina@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, Univ. of California, Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AB: This paper discusses our simulations of ion escape from Mars and Titan. This issue of ion escape has become a topic of major interest with current and future acquisition of ion data from Titan and it's plasma torus, and the issue of water loss from Mars. The simulation tool used for this research is a 3-D spherical hybrid particle code. This code and it's Cartesian predecessor HALFSHEL, have been used for years to study these bodies. However, in the last year substantial changes have been made to the chemistry packages with the code as well as adding ion-neutral and ion-ion drag to the formulation. These additions to the simulations coupled with the higher radial resolution afforded by using spherical coordinates permit higher fidelity simulations of these bodies. The results presented will be of the loss rates found for differing ion species that compose the ionosphere of Mars and Titan.
DE: 2459 Planetary ionospheres (5435, 5729, 6026)
DE: 2780 Solar wind interactions with unmagnetized bodies
DE: 6225 Mars
DE: 6281 Titan
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005