Effect of the lateral exospheric transport on the horizontal hydrogen distribution at the exobase of Mars

Abstract

International audienceWe describe the horizontal distribution of hydrogen density at the exobase of Mars as simulated by coupling a 3D GCM with an exospheric balistic model, taking into account the flight balistic time of the exopheric hydrogen atoms. Such a description is more realistic than the assumptions used in our past study [4]. We simulate 4 Martian rotations at three different seasons. The horizontal variations of the hydrogen density at the exobase are reduced when the exospheric balistic transport is included compared to our previous simulations