Hybrid simulation of the Solar wind interaction with the Martian ionosphere and magnetic field

International audienceIn the frame of the HELIOSARES project (PI F.Leblanc) dedicated to the modeling of Mars environment (neutral and charged species) from the lower atmosphere to the solar wind, a modeling effort has been conducted to parallelize a multi-species hybrid simulation code. This code now provides a kinetic description of the ions with a rather improved spatial resolution (smaller than the ion inertial length). The latest progresses are reported and simulations results with a uniform spatial resolution of 80 km are presented. This fully parallelized code describes both the dynamics and physical and chemical processes involved in the interaction. Photoproduction, charge exchange and electron impact ionization are computed dynamically through the simulation domain. The Martian ionosphere can be described either by external profile - e.g. by coupling with the result of ionosphere-exosphere simulations - or internally computed profiles obtained by assuming an equilibrium between several chemical processes (in which case transport is neglected). Moreover, the Martian crustal field can be integrated in our model to study its influence on the interaction dynamic and the ionosphere escape rate. We hereby show the results of these simulations and discussed their impact on the understanding of the Martian environment