Ionosphere of Mars: data calibration and analysis, and modelling

Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Departamento de Física de la Tierra, Astronomía y Astrofísica I, leída el 17/06/2014Depto. de Física de la Tierra y AstrofísicaFac. de Ciencias FísicasTRUEunpu

The effect of maternal diabetes on the Wnt-PCP pathway during embryogenesis as reflected in the developing mouse eye

Embryopathies that develop as a consequence of maternal diabetes have been studied intensely in both experimental and clinical scenarios. Accordingly, hyperglycaemia has been shown to downregulate the expression of elements in the non-canonical Wnt-PCP pathway, such as the Dishevelled-associated activator of morphogenesis 1 (Daam1) and Vangl2. Daam1 is a formin that is essential for actin polymerization and for cytoskeletal reorganization, and it is expressed strongly in certain organs during mouse development, including the eye, neural tube and heart. Daam1gt/gt and Daam1gt/+ embryos develop ocular defects (anophthalmia or microphthalmia) that are similar to those detected as a result of hyperglycaemia. Indeed, studying the effects of maternal diabetes on the Wnt-PCP pathway demonstrated that there was strong association with the Daam1 genotype, whereby the embryopathy observed in Daam1gt/+ mutant embryos of diabetic dams was more severe. There was evidence that embryonic exposure to glucose in vitro diminishes the expression of genes in the Wnt-PCP pathway, leading to altered cytoskeletal organization, cell shape and cell polarity in the optic vesicle. Hence, the Wnt-PCP pathway appears to influence cell morphology and cell polarity, events that drive the cellular movements required for optic vesicle formation and that, in turn, are required to maintain the fate determination. Here, we demonstrate that the Wnt-PCP pathway is involved in the early stages of mouse eye development and that it is altered by diabetes, provoking the ocular phenotype observed in the affected embryos

Morphological analyses of small and medium size landforms in Scandia Cavi and Olympia Undae, Northern circumpolar region of mars

This article presents a systematic morphological analysis of the topographic landforms at Olympia Undae and Scandia Cavi in the northern circumpolar region of Mars. The study has been performed using images from Mars Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, as well as topographic profiles from Mars Global Surveyor of 200 small and medium-size geological landforms (16 km diameter on average). The main morphometric parameters of these landforms have allowed their classification into three groups that include cratered structures, non-cratered structures, and complex irregular structures. In the cratered group, three subgroups can be distinguished: cratered cones, impact craters and undifferentiated craters. In turn, the non-cratered group includes two subgroups: peaked domes and simple domes. Their possible relation to internal, surface and impact processes is discussed

Solar cycle variations in the ionosphere of Mars

Solar cycle variations in solar radiation create notable changes in the Martian ionosphere, which have been analysed with Mars Express plasma datasets in this paper. In general, lower densities and temperatures of the ionosphere are found during the low solar activity phase, while higher densities and temperatures are found during the high solar activity phase. In this paper, we assess the degree of influence of the long term solar flux variations in the ionosphere of Mars

10- to 19.5-GHz microwave receiver of an electro-optical interferometer for radio astronomy

This document describes the analysis, design, and prototype test results of the microwave section of a 10- to 19.5-GHz interferometer, aimed at obtaining polarization data of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation from the sky. First, receiver analysis is thoroughly assessed to study the contribution of each subsystem when obtaining the Stokes parameters of an input signal. Then, the receiver design is detailed starting from the front-end module, which works at cryogenic temperature, composed of a set of passive components: feedhorn, orthomode transducer, and polarizer, together with active components, such as very low-noise amplifiers. The back-end module (BEM) is directly connected, working at room temperature for further amplification, phase switching, and correlation of the signals. Moreover, the whole frequency band is split into two sub-bands (10 to 14 GHz and 16 to 20 GHz) using a high selective diplexer in the BEM in order to reject radiofrequency interferences. Phase switches allow phase difference steps of 5.625 deg, which modulate the correlated outputs to reduce systematic effects in the postdetection signal processing. Finally, measurements of all the subsystems comprising the microwave section of the receiver as well as the characterization of the complete microwave receiver are presented. The obtained results demonstrate successful performance of the microwave receiver that, together with an electro-optical correlator and a near-infrared camera, comprises the interferometer. Moreover, synthesized images corresponding to combinations of the Stokes parameters can be obtained with the whole system.The authors would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness for financial support provided through the grant ESP2015-70646-C2-2-R. The authors thank Eva Cuerno for her assistance during the assembly of the circuits

The Martian bow shock over solar cycle 23-24 as observed by the Mars Express mission

The Martian bow shock position is known to be correlated with solar extreme ultraviolet irradiance. Since this parameter is also correlated with the evolution of the solar cycle, it is expected that the Martian bow shock position should also vary over such a period. However, previous reports on this topic have often proved contradictory. Using 13 years of observations of the Martian bow shock by the Mars Express mission over the period 2004 to 2017, we report that the Martian bow shock position does vary over the solar cycle. Over this period, our analysis shows the bow shock position to increase on average by 7% between the solar minimum and maximum phases of solar cycle 23–24, which could be even larger for more extreme previous solar cycles. We show that both annual and solar cycle variations play major roles in the location of the bow shock at Mars

Spatial, Seasonal, and Solar Cycle Variations of the Martian Total Electron Content (TEC): Is the TEC a Good Tracer for Atmospheric Cycles?

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.We analyze 10 years of Mars Express total electron content (TEC) data from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument. We describe the spatial, seasonal, and solar cycle behavior of the Martian TEC. Due to orbit evolution, data come mainly from the evening, dusk terminator and postdusk nightside. The annual TEC profile shows a peak at Ls = 25–75° which is not related to the solar irradiance variation but instead coincides with an increase in the thermospheric density, possibly linked with variations in the surface pressure produced by atmospheric cycles such as the CO or water cycles. With the help of numerical modeling, we explore the contribution of the ion species to the TEC and the coupling between the thermosphere and ionosphere. These are the first observations which show that the TEC is a useful parameter, routinely measured by Mars Express, of the dynamics of the lower-upper atmospheric coupling and can be used as tracer for the behavior of the thermosphere.©2018. The Authors.B. S. -C. and M. L. acknowledge support through STFC grant ST/N000749/1. ESA-ESTEC Faculty and Europlanet funding are also gratefully acknowledged. MEX MARSIS RDR and EDR data can be downloaded from the ESA-PSA archive, TIMED-SEE data at the University of Colorado's website (http://lasp.colorado.edu/lisird/index.html), REMS data at the NASA Planetary Data System (http://atmos.nmsu.edu/PDS/data/mslrem_1001/DATA/), the MCD model at the Mars Climate Database web interface (http://www-mars.lmd.jussieu.fr/mars/access.html), and the IPIM model at the IRAP CDPP web interface (http://transplanet.irap.omp.eu/)