Study of Exospheric Neutral Composition of Mars observed from Indian Mars Orbiter Mission

Abstract The exospheric composition data of Mars for the period 2014–15 has been extracted and analysed using the observations carried out by the MENCA (Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser) payload on-board the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) launched by India. The latitude, longitude, altitude and solar zenith angle coverage of the partial pressure values of different exospheric constituents are determined and assigned to create a new data-set with orbit-wise data assimilation particularly between 260 and 600 km altitude range. Apart from getting the results on mean individual orbits’ partial pressure profiles, the variations of the total as well as partial pressures are studied with respect to the distribution of the major atmospheric constituents and their dependence on solar activity. In particular, CO2 and O variations are considered together for any differential effects due to photolysis and photo-ionisation. The results on the gradual reduction in densities due to decreasing daily mean sunspot numbers and strong response of CO2 and O pressures to solar energetic particle events like that of 24 December 2014 are presented.