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THE MARTIAN ATMOSPHERIC LOSS THROUGH THE INTERACTIONS WITH SOLAR EUV SOLAR WIND AND INTERPLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELD (IMF) IS CRITICAL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE LONG-TERM EVOLUTION OF THE MARS ATMOSPHERE AND HABITABILITY. ALTHOUGH THERE HAVE BEEN MANY STUDIES OF THE MARTIAN ION LOSS BASED ON THE DATA FROM MARS ATMOSPHERE AND VOLATILE EVOLUTION (MAVEN) AND MARS EXPRESS (MEX) SPACECRAFT MANY QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWERED. WITH IMF MEASUREMENTS FROM THE MAGNETOMETER ON BOARD MAVEN ION DATA HAVEN BEEN ORGANIZED IN THE MARS SOLAR ELECTRIC FIELD (MSE) COORDINATE SYSTEM IN WHICH TWO MAJOR ION ESCAPE CHANNELS A TAIL IN THE ANTI-SUNWARD DIRECTION AND AN ENERGETIC PLUME IN THE UPSTREAM ELECTRIC FIELD DIRECTION HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED. IT IS ALSO SHOWN BY MAVEN DATA ANALYSIS THAT THE ION LOSS RATES THROUGH THE TWO CHANNELS ARE AFFECTED BY SOLAR EUV IN A DIFFERENT WAY. HOWEVER MAVEN DATA COVERS A RELATIVELY SHORT TIME PERIOD AND CAN ONLY TELL THE SEASONAL VARIATIONS OF ION ESCAPE. ALTHOUGH MEX DATA COVERS MORE THAN A FULL SOLAR CYCLE DUE TO THE LACK OF A MAGNETOMETER MEX ION MEASUREMENTS HAVE BEEN MOSTLY ORGANIZED IN THE MARS SOLAR ORBITAL (MSO) COORDINATE SYSTEM WITH A FOCUS ON THE TAILWARD ESCAPE. THE SOLAR CYCLE VARIATIONS OF ION LOSS THROUGH DIFFERENT ESCAPING CHANNELS ARE NOT WELL UNDERSTOOD YET. ON THE OTHER HAND WITH MULTIPLE UPSTREAM PARAMETERS IT IS DIFFICULT TO MANUALLY BUILD AN EMPIRICAL MODEL FROM DATA TO QUANTIFY THE EFFECTS FROM ALL DRIVERS WITHOUT BIAS. THEREFORE WE PROPOSE TO ORGANIZE MEX ION DATA IN MSE BASED ON PICKUP ION MEASUREMENTS AND USE MACHINE LEARNING METHODS TO ANALYZE MAVEN AND MEX DATA TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING SCIENCE QUESTIONS: 1. WHAT ARE THE VARIATIONS OF THE ION SPATIAL DISTRIBUTIONS IN MSE WITH UPSTREAM DRIVERS? 2. WHAT ARE THE SOLAR CYCLE VARIATIONS OF ION ESCAPE RATES THROUGH DIFFERENT ESCAPING CHANNELS? 3. WHAT IS THE QUANTITATIVE THE DEPENDENCE OF TOTAL ION ESCAPE RATES ON MULTIPLE UPSTREAM DRIVERS? UPSTREAM ELECTRIC FIELD DIRECTIONS ARE NEEDED TO ORGANIZE MEX DATA IN MSE. MAVEN DATA SHOWS THAT THE PICKUP ION VELOCITY DIRECTIONS IN THE SHEATH AND UPSTREAM REGION ARE WELL ALIGNED WITH THE UPSTREAM ELECTRIC FIELD DIRECTIONS IN MSO-YZ PLANE. THUS THE MEX PICKUP ION MEASUREMENTS CAN BE USED TO DERIVE UPSTREAM ELECTRIC FIELD DIRECTIONS. IN THIS WAY A LARGE AMOUNT OF MEX DATA PRIOR TO MAVEN'S ARRIVAL CAN BE ORGANIZED IN MSE. THE NEXT STEP IS TO TRAIN MACHINE LEARNING MODELS WITH MAVEN AND MEX DATA. WE WILL USE THE UPSTREAM DATA AND PLANETARY ION MEASUREMENT POSITIONS IN MSE AS INPUT AND USE THE MEASURED PLANETARY ION MOMENTS AS TARGET. THE MODELS WILL BE TRAINED WITH MAVEN AND MEX DATA SEPARATELY. DIFFERENT FORMATS OF INPUT AND TARGET DATA AND DIFFERENT MODEL ARCHITECTURES WILL BE TESTED TO ACHIEVE THE BEST RESULTS. WHEN THE MODELS ARE SUCCESSFULLY TRAINED WE WILL BE ABLE TO GET ION SPATIAL DISTRIBUTIONS IN MSE WITH ANY GIVEN UPSTREAM CONDITIONS AND ESTIMATE THE ESCAPE RATES THROUGH THE PLUME AND TAIL. WITH DIFFERENT UPSTREAM INPUTS WE WILL STUDY THE VARIATIONS WITH UPSTREAM DRIVERS. THE RESULTS FROM MAVEN AND MEX DATA WILL BE COMPARED WITH EACH OTHER. THE PROPOSED WORK USES NEW TECHNIQUES TO ANALYZE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE MAVEN AND MEX DATA FROM NASA PDS AND THE ESA PSA. IT CAN GREATLY IMPROVE THE ESTIMATION OF MARTIAN ION ESCAPE RATES FROM MEX AND MAVEN DATA AND BETTER QUANTIFY EACH SINGLE-DRIVER EFFECT ON THE ION ESCAPE RATES AS WELL AS THE CO-EFFECTS FROM MULTIPLE UPSTREAM DRIVERS. THIS WORK WILL ENHANCE THE SCIENTIFIC RETURN FROM BOTH MISSIONS AND FITS THE SCOPE OF MDAP WELL. THE RESULTS FROM THIS WORK CAN BE USED TO STUDY LONG-TERM MARTIAN ATMOSPHERIC LOSS AND PROVIDE PREDICTIONS OF MARTIAN PLASMA ENVIRONMENT FOR DATA CALIBRATIONS AND OPERATIONS OF CURRENT AND FUTURE MARS MISSIONS.

$393,355FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

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