Longitudinal differences in the space weather effects over the Earths equatorial and low latitude ionosphere M. A.

Abdu Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais INPE, Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. The Earths ionosphere and thermosphere are subject to drastic modifications during space weather disturbances arising from solar wind impact on the magnetosphere and the magnetic storms resulting thereof. The low latitude regions are responsive to energy transport from high latitudes as well as to the direct effects from prompt penetration of magnetospheric electric fields. The degree of the ionospheric response and its local time variations are however, dependent on the global scale distribution of ionospheric conductivity and its local time variations, as well as its large-scale spatial gradients on regional scales. The large-scale spatial gradient in the low-middle latitude ionosphere conductivity marking the longitude sector of the South American/ Brazilian Geomagnetic Anomaly (SAMA) region can undergo significant enhancement during space weather disturbances, to a more intense degree than over longitudes. As a result distinctly different degree of the response of both the E- and Fregions of the ionosphere appears to be present as a function of longitude. Such differences have been observed with respect to the storm time disturbance electric field effects, equatorial vertical plasma drifts, plasma bubbles development, as well as in the Es layer formation and in electrojet current flow. This talk will present a brief overview of our present understanding of these longitudinal differences.

Influence of Solar Flare X-rays on the habitability on Mars Arun K. Awasthia *, Rajmal Jaina, Sharad C. Tripathic, Nipa J. Bhattb, Parvaiz A. Khanc
a

Astronomy & Astrophysics Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India b C. U. Shah Science college, Ahmedabad, India c Space Science Laboratory, Dept. of Physics, Barkatullah University, Bhopal, India

We probe the lethality of the X-rays from the solar flares to the organisms on the Mars based on the observations of ten solar flares. We, firstly, estimate the doses produced by the strong flares observed by the RHESSI and GOES missions during the descending phase of sunspot cycle 23. Next, in order to realize the dependence of dose on flux and steepness of spectra, we model incident spectra over a wide range of spectral index to estimate dose values and compare them with the observed doses. We calculate distribution of surficial spectra visible to the organisms on the Martian surface by employing attenuation of X-rays offered by CO2 column densities distribution over the South Pole. The surficial flux distribution after folding with the opacity of water enables us to estimate the dose distribution over the South Pole. The dose measured from the surficial spectrum produced by the observed ten flares corresponding to the latitudes 50-600, 60-700, 70-800 and 80-900 S varies in the range of 6.39 10-9 1.80 10-6; 4.89 10-10 5.21 10-8; 5.10 10-11 5.20 10-9 and 4.42 10-10 4.89 10-12 gray (1 gray=104 erg/g) respectively. Comparing the measured as well as the modeled doses with 1

those proposed to be lethal for various organisms by Smith and Scalo (2007); we report that the habitability of life on the South Pole remains unaffected even by the strongest solar flare occurred during descending phase of solar cycle 23. Further, the monthly integrated energy released by the solar flares in the most productive month viz. October 2003 and January 2005 from the GOES soft X-ray observations is estimated to be 8.43 and 3.32 1032 ergs respectively, which is almost equal in order to the typical energy released by a single strong X-class flare. Therefore, we propose the life near the South Pole region on the Mars remain uninfluenced by X-ray emission even during monster phenomena of energy release on the Sun and/or Star. * Corresponding author email: awasthi@prl.res.in

Estimation of alpha particle induced X-ray fluorescence signals on lunar surface D. Banerjee*, B. Shah and S. K. Goyal PLANEX Program, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India The irradiation of a sample surface with alpha particles and X-rays from radioactive sources (e.g. 244Cm) results in emission of characteristic X-rays from the sample atoms due to recombination of ionizations caused by radiation (alpha and X-rays) from the sources. An alpha-particle induced X-ray spectrometer (APXS) can be used to determine the chemical composition of rocks and soils by placing its sensor head against the sample, powering on the instrument and acquiring spectra. The APXS experiment in the Chandrayaan-2 moon mission will use six 244Cm radioactive sources (5 mCi each) and a 30 mm2 silicon drift detector (SDD) to measure the intensity of characteristic X-rays emitted from major and some trace elements at the lunar landing site. This paper presents a theoretical procedure for estimation of particle-induced X-ray fluorescence signal for different target samples. Our calculations considered anticipated elemental concentrations in the target, as well as relevant stopping power, attenuation, X-ray production cross-section, instrumental, and viewing geometry parameters for X-ray induced fluorescence from the lunar surface. We have developed a Labview based software for estimating the alpha particle induced X-ray signal, and our presentation will discuss results of anticipated APXE (alpha particle induced X-ray emission) signals from prominent K lines observable by a 30 mm2 X-ray detector for various lunar surface compositions. *Corresponding author email: deba@prl.res.in

Ionosphere and thermosphere under the extremely prolonged low solar activity of solar cycle 23/24 Inez S. Batista1, Claudia M. N. Candido1, M. A. Abdu1, C. Brum2
1

Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, INPE, So Jos dos Campos, SP, Brazil 2 Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico

The solar irradiance at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths is the primary heat source of the thermosphere. The thermosphere responds to temperature changes expanding or contracting in such a way that the thermospheric density, at a fixed height is highly dependent on the solar EUV flux. The solar radiation is also the responsible for the ionospheric primary ionization and its layering structure. During the minimum of the solar cycle 23/24 the sun had a large number of spotless days as compared with previous periods. During this unusually prolonged solar minimum the solar flux responsible for the thermospheric heating and ionospheric formation was very low. This provided a unique opportunity for the investigation of the thermosphere-ionosphere system under extremely low solar activity. Studies are indicating the need to review some proxies used to represent the solar irradiance in thermosphere-ionosphere models. The low density ionosphere has also provided good conditions for the study of waves propagating in the ionospheric F region. Corresponding author email: inez@dae.inpe.br

Eliassen-Palm flux diagnostics on tropical response to vortex split wave 2 major warming events occurred in Northern Hemispheric winter G. J. Bhagavathiammal1 and Manohar Lal2 Equatorial Geophysical Research Laboratory, Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, Krishnapuram, Tirunelveli, India 2 K.S. Krishnan Geophysical Research Laboratory, Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, Allahabad, India Influence of Major Vortex Split type Warming (MVSW) on tropical environment is investigated through Eliassen-Palm (E-P) flux analysis on ERA-Interim data by taking three succeeding warming events 1984/85, 1989 and 2008/09. An evidence of horizontal transfer of heat flux from polar to tropics is obtained through E-P flux. Prominent entrance of vertical heat flux from polar to tropical lower stratosphere is noticed during 2008/09 than 1984/85 and 1989. Convergence of wave forcing is less prominent in 1984/85 than events 1989 and 2008/09. In 2008/09, strong convergence of wave forcing is reached much lower latitude < 20oN than other two events. Preconditioning effect of planetary wave activity is noted in all three MVSW events whereas 1984/85 show less wave activity compared to 1989 and 2008/09. Similar dynamical features are observed in both 1989 and 2008/09 winters compared to 1984/85. It is observed that sudden warming in the polar stratosphere is associated with an uplifting of tropical stratospheric temperature layers. Uplifting is the key contributor to cooling, an anomalous decrease of temperature anomaly (TA) is achieved over
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the tropical lower stratosphere during the course of MVSW. Upward propagating warm pulses over polar latitude are associated with downward propagating cold anomaly over tropics. It is noted that polar warm pulses are accompanied with lowering of zonal mean OLR (a proxy for tropical convection) evidencing notable relationship with zonal mean OLR and MVSW events. Latitude-longitude maps of OLR show enhancement (reduction) of convection over South America and Africa (Indonesian) sector.

Interaction of the Solar Wind with the Moon: New Results from the SARA/Chandrayaan-1 Anil Bhardwaj and the SARA Team Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum 695022, India

The Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer (SARA) experiment aboard the first Indian lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 consisted of two sensors mounted at 90 degree to each other on the top deck. While the Chandrayaan Energetic Neutrals Analyzer (CENA) measured energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) in the 0.1-3 keV energy range, the Solar Wind Monitor (SWIM) measured ions in the 0.1-15 keV range in lunar environment. SARA observations have revealed several new and interesting aspects about the solar wind interaction with the Moon, which include: (1) substantial (~20%) and sustained backscattering of solar wind protons incident on the lunar surface as neutral hydrogen atoms (hydrogen ENAs); (2) discovery of mini-magnetosphere on Moon using backscattered hydrogen ENAs; (3) preferential backscattering of Solar wind ENAs in the sunward direction; (4) huge (~50%) deflection of solar wind protons around strong magnetic anomalies; (5) accelerated pick-up ions in lunar environment; (6) reflection of solar wind protons from lunar surface; and (7) ions in the nearlunar plasma wake (night side). These results have questioned our earlier understanding that the solar wind is completely absorbed on the lunar surface. They suggest a clear linkage between magnetic anomaly and space weathering processes on the Moon. The SARA results have implications for OH-H2O production on the Moon, the lunar plasma environment, implantation of solar wind hydrogen on lunar surface, and behaviour of small scale magnetic anomalies on planetary bodies. The SARA observations suggest that similar processes may happen on other atmosphere-less bodies covered with regolith in the solar system as well as in extra-solar system. Corresponding author email: Anil_Bhardwaj@vssc.gov.in ; Bhardwaj_SPL@yahoo.com

Limb Viewing Hyper Spectral Imager (LiVHYSI) for air-glow measurements from YOUTHSAT First results Bisht R. S., Hait A.K., Sarkar S.S., Benerji A., Biswas A., Mehta S., Detroja M.P., Sukheja A., Seth H., Murali K.R.,Subramanyam D., Babu P.N., Saji A.K., Samudriah D.R.M., Kirankumar A.S. Space Applications Centre (ISRO) Ahmedabad, India Pant T.K., Krishnamoorthy K., Space Physics Laboratory, VSSC, Tiruvanantpuram, India Sridharan R., Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India

LiVHYSI is one of the Indian payloads onboard YOUTHSAT (inclination 98.730E, apogee 817 km) launched in April, 2011. The imager is being operated in earths limb viewing mode and performing its intended objective of airglow measurements at a range of about 3200 Km in the Earths upper atmosphere covering an altitude range of 80 600 km and a spectral range of 550 to 900 nm. This imaging spectrometer employs a Linearly Variable Filter (LVF) as a dispersive element placed in close proximity of an Active Pixel Sensor (APS) area array. The optics used is an eight element F#2 telecentric lens system with 80mm effective focal length. The detector is aligned with respect to the LVF such that its 512 pixel dimension covers the wavelength range also. The radiometric performance of the camera is found to be <20 Rayleigh at noise floor through the signal integration for 10 seconds at =630nm. The spectral sampling is done at 1.06 nm interval. The camera can be operated in four different modes: Forward or Backward looking modes with optic axis in the orbital plane, East or West looking modes with optic axis perpendicular to orbital plane. The integration in the time/spatial domain could be chosen depending upon the seasons, solar and geomagnetic activities and/or specific target area. Currently, the observations are carried out during the eclipse period due to operational constraints imposed by the other on-board payloads. This paper describes the imaging spectrometer, its radiometric and spectral calibration, and inorbit performance as deduced from its operation during first few orbits (orbit# 7 to 158). Payload operations during these orbits show prominent O(1D) 630 nm emission peaking at about 220 Km altitude. As the altitude coverage during these operations is 95 Km to 605 Km, OH(9-3) Meinel band emission around 630nm with peak at around 85Km is not seen. Other airglow features at 732nm (OII emission), 762nm (O2 band emission), 777nm (OI emission), and 845nm (OI emission) with peak emission mostly between 80Km to 100 Km are observed to be very faint because of inadequate altitude coverage. Thus, only O(1D) 630 nm emission is presented and discussed in detail. Corresponding author email: ratan@sac.isro.gov.in

The 2013 MAVEN mission D.A. Brain and B.M. Jakosky Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, to be launched in November 2013, will explore the upper atmosphere of Mars, measure escape processes and rates at the present epoch, and provide observations that allow extrapolation into the past. The net result will be a clear understanding of the role that escape of atmospheric species to space has played through time, and a determination of its importance relative to other loss processes in controlling the changing climate. Instruments on board MAVEN will determine the structure and composition of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, the rates of loss of atoms, ions, and molecules to space, and the solar inputs that control the relevant processes. Along with understanding the processes, measurements of isotopic ratios and of the direct response to changing solar drivers will allow extrapolation into the past. MAVEN will have a precessing elliptical orbit that allows wide sampling in altitude, latitude, longitude, and the different regions of near-Mars space. Its primary mission lasts one Earth year beginning in October 2014 (at or shortly after the anticipated solar maximum period), but we anticipate having fuel to operate for longer. MAVEN passed its Critical Design Review in July 2011, and is on schedule and on budget. The team is presently manufacturing the instruments and spacecraft components, and system integration and test begins in summer 2012. We will provide a summary of MAVEN's science objectives, measurements, mission design, and current status.

The dynamic Martian plasma environment D. Brain1, M. Cartwright2, J. Eastwood3, S. Fischer4, J.S. Halekas2, R. Lillis2, D. Ulusen5
1

Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA 2 Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, USA 3 Imperial College, London, UK 4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA 5 Space Technologies Research Institute, Turkey

Time variability is an important component of the Martian plasma environment. The Martian magnetosphere is induced by electromagnetic interactions between the solar wind and conducting ionosphere, so variations in the solar wind are reflected in the plasma environment close to the planet. Localized regions of the crust are strongly magnetized and rotate with the planet, so that the shape of the Martian obstacle to the solar wind varies on timescales associated with the Martian rotation and orbital periods. Solar EUV photons determine the conductivity of the ionosphere and the location of its upper boundary, with short term (days and weeks) variation superposed on a longer term solar cycle variation. And

occasional solar storm events (flare photons and solar energetic particles) perturb the entire Martian system periodically. We will briefly review observations of the many kinds of variability in the Martian plasma environment described above. Then we will focus on a few recent results obtained by our research group that pertain to Martian magnetospheric dynamics. These include variations in the magnetic field topology near Mars, magnetic reconnection, field aligned currents and aurora near crustal magnetic fields, and magnetic flux rope structures. We will tie these observations to some 'big picture' science questions for the Martian atmosphere.

A simplified UV spectrograph for atmospheric studies of terrestrial planets Supriya Chakrabarti Center for Space Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA

Perturbations in the Earths upper atmosphere and ionosphere due to events occurring anywhere from the surface of the Earth to internally within the atmosphere have been detected by ground-based instruments. These perturbations can be the result of either natural processes such as medium scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs), non-migrating tides generated by land-sea interfaces or catastrophic events such as tsunamis and earthquakes. While we have an excellent overall understanding of the upper atmosphere, they take no account of smaller temporal and spatial scales that have become an intense object of study in the last few years. To address this gap in our knowledge of smaller scale structures, we have recently designed a CubeSat based, Far Ultraviolet (FUV) imaging spectrograph optimized to detect these perturbations. Given the severe constraints on spacecraft resources afforded by CubeSat, such an instrument development approach is ideally suited for incorporation in future missions to terrestrial planets. Just as it is the case for the Earth, the airglow spectra of the planets have now been established as well as the physical processes that are responsible for their production. Selected spectral features and their sensing parameters (such as angular and temporal resolutions, cadence, etc.), whose intensity distributions across the planet (latitude, longitude and altitude), their morphology and the intensity ratios provide key diagnostics for atmospheric responses to solar flares, auroral processes or other time-varying phenomena. In this talk, I will describe the instrument designed for terrestrial application and discuss how it could be extended to the study of Martian atmosphere. Corresponding author email: supcma@gmail.com

Dynamics of the winter time Mesosphere Lower Thermosphere region A. Chandran1, R. L. Collins1, R. R. Garcia2, D. R. Marsh2 Geophysical Institute and Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA 2 Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA The circulation and temperature of the polar mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region is essentially a wave driven phenomenon. The polar winter stratopause is a gravity wave driven feature of the wintertime temperature distribution. Westward propagating gravity waves travel upward into the mesosphere, break between 60 and 80 km, and drive a poleward and downward circulation below the breaking level. Under normal wintertime conditions the maximum downwelling occurs over the polar cap region and the stratopause height over the poles corresponds with the region of adiabatic heating due to. A stratospheric sudden warming (SSW) is a dynamical phenomenon that occurs in the wintertime middle atmosphere. SSWs are caused by the interaction between upward propagating planetary Rossby waves and the zonal mean flow. During SSW events, breaking planetary waves, displace or split the polar vortex, reverse the eastward zonal jet in the stratosphere and produce downwelling and adiabatic warming in the stratosphere. At the same time, eastward gravity waves reverse the residual circulation in the mesosphere and drive an upwelling and adiabatic cooling in the mesosphere. Over the last decade the wintertime Arctic stratosphere has shown significant inter-annual variability with multiple instances of extreme SSW events followed by the formation of an elevated stratopause in the lower mesosphere. This recent variability has attracted interest from researchers attempting to understand trends in the general circulation, the dynamics of the stratospheric vortex, Arctic ozone depletion, the role of wave-forcing in the circulation, and coupling between the different layers of the atmosphere. SSWs are characterized by prolonged period of reversals of the zonal mean flow in the stratosphere, lower mesosphere and reversals in the residual circulation. The Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) generates multiple major and minor stratospheric sudden warming (SSW) events in the northern hemisphere winters in four 50year free running simulations of the period 1953 2003. Some of these SSW include extreme warming events where the polar vortex breaks down throughout the stratosphere followed by the reformation of an elevated stratopause at a high altitude. The characteristics of the SSW events and the responses of the MLT region are compared to those found in other studies using reanalysis data and observations. WACCM simulates quite accurately most dynamical features associated with major SSW. By comparing WACCM simulations of two Arctic winters, where one is dynamically undisturbed and one is disturbed, we find that intense planetary wave activity during a SSW drives the reversal of the zonal mean wind in the stratosphere, which reverses the gravity driven circulation in the mesosphere. We quantify the role of planetary waves and gravity waves in the coupling between the stratosphere, mesosphere and lower thermosphere, formation of the elevated stratopause and reformation of the polar vortex. The latitudinal and longitudinal variations in both planetary waves and gravity wave forcing and the relative contributions of each to the circulation during these events are also presented. Corresponding author email: chandran@ucar.edu
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Imprints of Solar Rotation in the Terrestrial Atmosphere Satish Chandra1*, Som Kumar Sharma 2, Hari Om Vats2 and H. Chandra2
1. 2.

P. P. N. (P G) College, Kanpur, India

Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India

The study of the solar variability and rotations in different region of solar atmosphere and their impact on the Earth's atmosphere is very important. Sun is the major drivers for the processes which are taking place in the Earth's atmosphere. We have carried out a long term study of the coronal solar rotation using the disc integrated radio flux at 2.8 GHz data of last five solar cycles. The 17 GHz radio data obtained from Nobeyama Radio Observatory were also analyzed to investigate the differential rotation of the lower corona. The almost rigid rotation of the corona has been re-examined and verified by analyzing Yohkoh/SXT observations. Extreme ultraviolet images, observed through the SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory), are also investigated. Our preliminary investigations with the images from SOHO Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) at 171 nm further substantiate our finding that the emissions at this height are having the less differential rotation than the Sun's lower atmosphere but more than the corona. Our recent investigation shows long term changes in the Earth's atmosphere in conjunction with the long term changes taking place in the Solar Rotation. In our study we used satellite measurements along with ground based observations for study of the energy radiated by the atmosphere, or the energy absorbed or scattered from sunlight passing through the atmosphere. Analysis of the data provides detailed information on chemical constituents, temperature and the effects of energy inputs from Sun and the solar wind. These findings will help to reveal the mechanisms that control the structure and variability of the Earth's middle and upper atmosphere, to improve the predictability of ozone depletion, and to define the role of the coupling processes in the Earth's atmosphere system. Corresponding author email: *satish0402@gmail.com

Ion pickup and plasma escape at solar system bodies Andrew Coates Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, London, UK Ion pickup provides the key mechanism by which comets interact with the solar wind. Following ionization of neutral particles, the new-born ions are accelerated in the convection electric field and gyrate around the magnetic field -- forming a cycloid in real space and an unstable ring in velocity space. Pickup is also present at most other planetary objects, and we review recent data from Titan, Enceladus, Rhea, Dione and Saturn's neutral-dominated magnetosphere, as well as from Mars, Venus and Earths moon. Here, we briefly review the pickup process and present examples of pickup ions at all these objects. We also consider their role in atmospheric escape. We look forward to future missions where pickup will play a key role such as Rosetta and JUICE. Corresponding author email: ajc@mssl.ucl.ac.uk

Influence of stratosphere troposphere exchange on the ozone levels in India Nandita D. Ganguly1 and Chris Tzanis2
1 2

Department of Physics, St. Xaviers College, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Department of Energy Technology, Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Greece

Decrease in stratospheric ozone will result in an amplification of the solar ultraviolet B radiation reaching the ground, which is a threat to the human society. On the other hand, ozone being toxic to the living system and an important contributor to anthropogenic global warming, high levels of tropospheric ozone will have adverse effects on the air quality and climate. Transport of ozone from the stratosphere to the troposphere will cause stratospheric ozone to decrease and tropospheric ozone to increase, which can in turn have serious consequences for life on earth. Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange (STE) is regarded as an important factor controlling the budget of ozone in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. Study of STE events in India are so far restricted to coordinated campaigns and measurements over longer periods are relatively scarce. In the light of these observations, the paper is aimed to identify the Indian latitudes, which are most likely to be affected by STE, the frequency of occurrence of shallow and deep STE events and the depth up to which stratospheric ozone descends into the troposphere during these events over the period of 24 10

years. In addition, the contribution of STE events to the observed high surface ozone levels for few cities covering from north to south of India will be presented. It is concluded that apart from transport processes and in situ photochemical production, STE also influences the observed high surface ozone levels in Indian cities to a small extent (8% 16%). STE events producing high surface ozone levels are found to be higher at high latitudes.

COSAC on Rosetta and its spin-off MOMA onboard ExoMars Chaitanya Giri,a* Fred Goesmann,a Harald Steininger,a Reinhard Roll,a Walter Goetz,a Cornelia Meinert,b Uwe Meierheinrich,b
a

Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany Institute for Chemistry at Nice, University of Nice, France

The ESA corner-stone mission Rosetta is targeted to rendezvous the comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko in November 2014 and soft-land on it. The Philae Lander on board Rosetta includes a Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry suite called Cometary Sampling and Composition experiment (COSAC) that aims to separate, identify, and quantify the organic composition of the cometary nucleus surface. The GC also includes enantioselective columns capable of separating potential prebiotic chiral molecules like amino acids. Such amino acids are believed to have been synthesized in interstellar space and chirality studies have been conducted under realistic interstellar conditions in laboratories. The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) is under development at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research for the future ExoMars mission as a spin-off of COSAC. The GC-MS suite on MOMA is accompanied by a Laser-desorption (LD) suite which can be used in the LD-MS variant. This provides an opportunity to search for prebiotic organics on Mars. The interesting aspect would be to elucidate the origin of possible prebiotic molecules on Mars are they geological or extra-terrestrial in origin? This abstract presents the current advances in the optimization of COSAC using earth-based models and the future scientific prospects of MOMA. *Corresponding author email: giri@mps.mpg.de

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Ionosphere of Mars during Quiet and Disturbed Conditions S.A. Haider Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India During flares the Sun emits huge amount of energy in the forms of photon and particle radiation that cause auroral displays and atmospheric disturbances on Mars. Auroras are produced at Mars by particles accelerated in the sequential processes following flares and shock waves driven by CME. We have used radio occultation data obtained from Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) at high latitudes (65.3o-65.6oN, 69.3o-69.6oN and 76.4o-77.5oN) to study the effects of X-ray flares and CMEs on Total Electron Content (TEC) in the E region of the Martian ionosphere in response to solar events that occurred on 29 and 31 May, 2003 and on 17 January and 13 May, 2005. Modeling of ion production rates, electron densities and TEC are carried out, in each case for quiet and disturbed conditions of the Sun based on GOES data. The estimated TEC values are compared with the in situ MGS observations. It is found that TEC increased by factors of ~ 5 during disturbed condition due to incident flaring X-ray radiation over Mars. Also, a 3D kinetic solar wind model (Hakamada-Akasofu-Fry Version 2/HAFv.2) is used to predict the arrivals of CME shocks at Mars associated with the flare event of May, 2005. These predicted shock arrivals were associated with in situ enhancements in TEC by factors of ~ 2.

Study of the effects of solar wind disturbances on the Martian plasma environment based on Mars Express observations Takuya Hara Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Japan. The solar wind can directly interact with the Martian upper atmosphere, since Mars does not possess a global intrinsic magnetic field [e.g., Acuna et al., 1998]. Atmospheric escape induced by the solar wind has been observed by Phobos-2 at the solar maximum, and by Mars Express (MEX) at the solar minimum [e.g., Lundin et al., 1989; Barabash et al., 2007]. Escape rates of planetary heavy ions, such as O+, O2+ and CO2+, estimated by both spacecraft indicate a large dependence on the solar wind conditions [e.g., Barabash et al., 2007; Lundin et al., 2008]. MEX observations recently found that escape rates were increased during passages of corotating interaction regions (CIRs), which is one of the interplanetary disturbances structure [Dubinin et al., 2009; Edberg et al., 2010]. These studies focused on the change of the outflow flux, and the physical process responsible for the heavy-ion escape enhancement by CIRs is still an open question. Here we report on a characteristic heavy-ion signature observed by MEX in the vicinity of the Martian ionosphere during passages of CIR in the solar wind. Observed heavy ions show, that these are not escaping from Mars, but are mostly precipitating toward the Martian upper atmosphere. These precipitating heavy ions are only observed by MEX when CIR structure passes through Mars. We discuss two external effects of the intermittent of heavy-ion precipitation toward the Martian upper atmosphere. One is the enhancement of the magnetic field strength due to the CIR passages, and the other

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is the direction of the solar wind electric field. Precipitating heavy ions can cause the ion sputtering, which is one of the nonthermal escape processes from Mars. These results suggest that the efficiency of the sputtering process in the Martian atmospheric escape is highly variable with dynamic solar wind variations [Hara et al., 2011].

BepiColombo MMO: Science target and observation plan H. Hayakawa, M. Fujimoto, M. Nishino and BepiColombo MMO Project Team Institute of Space and Astronautical Science / Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan BepiColombo has been defined as the ESA-JAXA joint mission to Mercury with the aim to understand the process of planetary formation and evolution in the hottest part of the protoplanetary nebula as well as to understand similarities and differences between the magnetospheres of the Mercury and the Earth. The baseline mission consists of two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The two orbiters will be launched together on one Ariane-5. JAXA is responsible for development and operation of MMO while ESA is responsible for development and operation of MPO and Mercury Transfer Module (MTM), launch, cruise phase operation, and Mercury orbit insertion. The main objectives of MPO are to study planet Mercury and planetary formation in the inner solar system. For this purpose, MPO is designed as a 3-axis stabilized spacecraft and will be placed in a 400 km x 1500 km polar orbit, while the main objectives of MMO are to study Mercury's magnetic field and plasma environment around Mercury. For this purpose, MMO is designed as a spin-stabilized spacecraft and will be placed in a same orbital plane as MPO but has a 400 km x 12000 km. The orbital period of MMO and MPO is designed as 4:1 to achieve cross calibration and cooperative observations. The main scientific objectives of the MMO spacecraft are: (1) Structure, dynamics, and physical processes of Mercurys magnetosphere (2) Structure and origin of Mercurys magnetic field (3) Structure, variation, and origin of Mercurys exosphere (4) Physical environment of inner solar system Especially, "Creation of the comparative studies of planetary magnetic field & magnetospheres" is the most important topics. (a) Magnetosphere: Mercurys special magnetosphere, without ionosphere and with large absorber planet etc., will provide another view of a planetary magnetosphere (b) Magnetic Field: Why do planets have a magnetic field? Mercury provides the first chance to compare the planetary magnetic field structure of a terrestrial planet with that of the Earth. For these targets, the MMO will have observational capabilities for charged particles in wide energy range, energetic neutral atoms, magnetic field, electric field/ plasma waves/radio waves, dust, and imaging. Also the orbit of the MMO (400km x 12,000km) covers wide region of the Mercurys magnetosphere and solar wind region which is important to investigate the science target of the MMO. Details of the science target and observation plan will be presented in the presentation. Corresponding author email: hayakawa@isas.jaxa.jp

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Charge exchange process and generation of ENAs near the Martian exobase Wing-Huen Ip1,2,4, Ying Liao1, Lei li3, Lianghai Xie3, Yiteng Zhang3 Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, Taiwan Institute of Space Sciences, National Central University, Taiwan 3 National Space Science Center, Beijing, China 4 Space Science Institute, Macau University of Science and Technolong, Macau
2 1

The existence of strong crustal remnant magnetic fields in the southern hemisphere of Mars has important effects on the ionospheric structures and solar wind interaction in both local and global scales. For example, the time variability in the configurations of the magnetic flux loops (or mini-magnetospheres) as Mars spins around could lead to pumping/heating of the ionospheric plasma in a way similar to the sunward convection of Earths magnetosphere. Another possible effect is about the partial shielding of the exosphere by the crustal remnant magnetic field that would likely introduce a certain north-south asymmetry in the generation of energetic neutral atoms from the charge exchange effect of the shocked solar wind protons. In this study, we will use the numerical results of the MHD model calculations by Ma et al. (2004) to explore semi-quantitatively the above two scenarios which could have interesting consequences on the evolution of the Martian atmosphere .

Solar wind interaction with Martian atmosphere Rajmal Jain Physical Research Laboratory, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad 380 009, India The most important question on today related to the planet Mars: Is it alive or dead in context to habitability? This question is associated with the key requirement of water and suitable atmosphere to sustain life. Firstly I present brief review of water and atmospheric evolution at Mars. However, the solar wind interaction with the Martian atmosphere creates a number of distinct plasma regions and boundaries, identified by characteristic signatures in particles and fields measurements. I will describe briefly these phenomena. The ions H+, O+, O2+ and He+ are of ionospheric origin. These ions are accelerated to >10,000 km due to E X B force from the top of the ionosphere because solar wind interacts directly with Martian ionosphere. The energies of these ions would be higher than the ionospheric ions of few eV. It is possible other ionospheric ions such as N2+, N+, C+, CO+ etc. would be present in the Martian tail and were not resolved by earlier missions. I will present solar wind related atmospheric loss and discuss in detail the loss processes. Experimental measurements related to Martian plasma environment from the key spacecraft missions will be discussed. I will also present briefly the science, instrumentation, status and prospects of Plasma and Current Experiment (PACE) proposed to fly on Indian Mars mission in 2013. The PACE is composed of Ion Mass Spectrometer (IMS) and Electron Spectrometer (ES) to measure the escape of ions and 14

photoelectrons respectively. PACE employs electrostatic analyzer with time-of-flight technique, which provides differential energy measurements in the energy range 1 eV-30 keV. This instrument will provide in-situ measurements throughout its orbit of 80,000km X 500km with ~ 360 inclinations. Advances in instrumentation and techniques will be described.

Atomic oxygen 2972, 5577, and 6300 emissions in the dayglow of Mars and Venus Sonal Kumar Jain and Anil Bhardwaj Space Physics laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum 695022, India

Forbidden atomic oxygen line emissions at 5577 O(1S 1D), 2972 O(1S 3P), and 6300 O(1D 3P) are strong features in the terrestrial airglow. Atomic oxygen green line emissions have been observed from nightside of Venus. However, till now there are no measurements of visible emission from dayside atmospheres of Mars and Venus. We have developed a detailed coupled chemistry model to understand the various processes governing the oxygen visible emissions in the dayglow of Mars and Venus. Various production and loss processes of O(1D) and O(1S) in atmospheres of Mars and Venus are considered in the model. On Mars, below 120 km the main production source of O(1D) is photodissociation (PD) of CO2, while at higher altitudes dissociative recombination of O2+, O(1S) radiative decay, and photodissociation of CO2 are the major sources. Contrary to the conclusion of Huestis et al. (2010), our calculations show that, in both solar minimum and maximum conditions, the main production mechanism of O(1S) is photodissociation of CO2 and not the dissociative recombination of O2+. The major loss process for O(1S) is radiative decay and for O(1D) its quenching by CO2. At lower altitudes (<80 km) quenching of O(1S) by O2 (a1g) becomes important. The effect of O2+ () vibrational distribution on O(1S) and O(1D) production is found to be negligible. The calculated OI 2972 emission profiles are in agreement with the Mariner and Mars Express observations. During solar maximum condition the limb intensity is about twice of that during solar minimum condition, but the difference increases with increase in altitude. The OI green line (few 100 kR) is more intense than the red line and the search for 5577 emission in Martian dayglow should focus at altitudes below 150 km. On Venus, the PD of CO2 is the major source of O(1S) production below 160 km. Above this altitude contributions of DR of O2+ and electron impact on O increase significantly. At the altitude of peak production of O(1D) (~120 km), PD of CO2 is the major contributor (90%), but above 140 km DR of O2+ and electron impact on O become dominant O(1D) production sources. At lower altitudes (<120 km) the O(1S) gets quenched by CO2. The O(1D) atom is heavily quenched by CO2 and other atmospheric constituents up to altitudes of 180 km. Height-integrated column excitation rate of O(1S) and O(1D) and overhead intensity of OI 2972, 5577, and 6300 on Venus are about a factor of 4 larger than those calculated for Martian dayglow. Calculated densities of O(1S) and O(1D) are around a factors of 2 and 4, respectively, larger in solar maximum compared to that in solar minimum condition. 15

Calculated limb intensity of OI 2972 emission is in agreement with the Pioneer Venus Orbiter Ultraviolet Spectrometer (PVOUVS). Results will be presented and discussed. Corresponding author email: sonaljain.spl@gmail.com

Radiative transfer modelling of the Martian atmosphere Bhavesh Jaiswal and K. C. Shyama Narendranath Space Astronomy Group, ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bangalore, India Solar radiation reflected from the surface of Mars in the NIR 1-1.7 m waveband can be utilised for analysing the composition of the Martian atmosphere and its seasonal changes. We have developed a line by line radiative transfer code to calculate the absorptance of lines of interest in the Martian atmosphere. This absorption model is based on the spectroscopic archives of HITRAN (HIgh TRANsmission molecular absorption database) 2008 database. We have considered CO2 which is the main constituent of the Martian atmosphere as a first approximation. The atmosphere is modeled as consisting of several layers, with a constant layering step, with varying pressure and temperature. Each layer is analysed separately for various parameters which control the absorption coefficient such as pressure, temperature, collisional broadening, Doppler broadening etc. Final output of the simulation consists of the transmittance/absorptance due to all the layers of the atmosphere, for each wavelength. The simulations have also demonstrated the potential to investigate the presence of water vapour (H2O) in the atmosphere of Mars. This simulation is being done in the context of an IR spectrometer called PRISM (PRobe for Infrared Spectroscopy of Mars) under development for a future Mars Orbiter Mission.

Future planetary missions based on instrumentation K. Janardhanachari Department of Systems Design, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India Planetary protection involves preventing biological contamination on both outbound and sample return missions to other planetary bodies. Numerous areas of research in astrobiology/exobiology are improving our understanding of the potential for survival of Earth microbes in extraterrestrial environments, relevant to preventing contamination of other bodies by organisms carried on spacecraft. Research is required to improve NASA's understanding of the potential for both forward and backward contamination, how to minimize it, and to set standards in these areas for spacecraft preparation and operating

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procedures. Improvements in technologies and methods for evaluating the potential for life in returned samples are also of interest. Future planetary missions will require advanced, smart, low resource payloads (P/Ls) and satellites to enable the exploration of the solar system in a more frequent, timely and multimission manner with reasonable cost. The concept of highly integrated payload architectures was introduced during the re-assessment of the payload of the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter. Considerable mass and power savings were achieved throughout the instrumentation by better definition of the instruments design, higher integration and identification of resource drivers. Higher integration and associated synergy effects permit optimization of the payload performance at minimum resource requirements while meeting demanding science requirements. The needs on future instrumentation were investigated for these mission concepts and potential instruments were proposed. A demonstration programme is now proposed in form of an elegant breadboard that consists of a photon counting laser altimeter, a stereoscopic high resolution camera, and a broadband radiometric mapping spectrometer. The aim of the activity is to demonstrate to feasibility of such a miniaturized, low resource and highly integrated payload based on innovative instrument designs. The activity shall there by provide a clear detailed definition of the technical and managerial aspects for implementation into potential future planetary space science missions. Corresponding author email: Kella.janardhanachri@gmail.com

Search for extrasolar planets Yogesh Chandra Joshi Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital- 263129, India

Nowadays Planet discoveries are routinely announced by several groups around the globe. More than 1000 extra solar planets are already known among which about 200 transit in front of the disk of their host star. Once a transiting planet is discovered, different kind of studies become possible, in particular, it allows us to estimate the radius of the planet and the inclination of the planetary orbit. Given that the projected mass is known from radial velocity measurements, the density of the planet can be determined. Beside that, the mid-transit time can be perturbed by the presence of additional planets in these systems hence a third body in the planetary system can be discovered by continuously monitoring the transit light curves over a long period of time. In this talk I will describe different techniques to detect extrasolar planets and current status of the ground and space based observations of these systems. Corresponding author email: yogesh@aries.res.in, yogesh.almora@gmail.com

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Advanced instrumentation for planetary surfaces and atmospheres Dhiren Kataria, Andrew Coates, Christopher J Owen Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, London, UK Surfaces of planetary bodies and their atmospheres, including those of their Moons, present a rich particle environment with signatures arising from a mix of complex phenomena. These include interactions of plasma (e.g. of solar wind or magnetospheric origin) with the planetary surface, atmosphere or fields, emissions from the planet (e.g. geysers, volcanic eruptions) and from the complex chemistry present in their atmospheres. Measurements of these particle environments are usually carried out with suites of sensors to address the varied requirements, demanding significant resources. This presentation will discuss a number of instrumentation developments currently being pursued at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) that are suitable for planetary science studies and offer advanced sensor systems with considerably reduced resources. MSSL has strong heritage with such instrumentation, having delivered capable instruments for a range of missions addressing cometary studies (Giotto), planetary environments (Cassini, Mars and Venus Express, Mars 96) and magnetospheric missions (Cluster, Double Star). There are currently 11 MSSL-built sensors operational in space at Earth, Mars, Venus and Saturn. These activities are backed up with excellent test and calibration facilities. Two key activities in this area are instrument miniaturisation using novel instrument geometries and micro-fabrication techniques typical of MEMS-based systems and development of enhanced performance top-hat analysers. For example, the Charged Particle Spectrometer (ChaPS) instrument recently delivered for the UKs TechDemoSat mission consists of a suite of miniaturised sensors for combined electron and ion detection and analysis. A particular advantage of these sensors is the ability to tune the performance of the system to address specific measurement goals, both in the design of the instrument as well as in-flight. Details of the measurements ChaPS will perform and some results from ground testing will also be presented. Other ongoing developments will also be presented and future activities discussed.

High-resolution spectroscopy of the Martian atmosphere Oleg Korablev1,2

2

Space Research Institute (IKI), Profsoyuznaya 84/32, 117997 Moscow, Russia Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, Russia

Martian atmosphere, though very tiny, as compared with Earth or Venus, plays an important role in forming the planet at present, and played even more in the past. Martian climate is believed to be in large responsible for the global distribution of volatiles, including configuration of the polar caps, low-latitude accumulations of ice, and multiple geologic

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features evidencing flowing water in the past. Spectroscopy provides a unique means of remote assessing the composition and structure of the atmosphere, characterizing the details of the present Mars climate. The talk will be dedicated to space borne spectroscopy methods, mostly in the IR, but also in the UV spectral range, with some results from Mars Express ESA mission, and description of future instruments for ExoMars programme, and other missions. Fourier-spectrometers cover a wide spectral range, and observing the radiation from atmosphere allow to retrieve the details of its thermal structure using 15-m CO2 band. Solar occultation measurements are dedicated to sensitive measurements of minor constituents, such as methane on Mars, or potentially the gases of volcanic origin. At present echelle-spectrometers allow more compact implementation of this method as compared to FTS. Special cases of spectrometers, such as laser and heterodine will be briefly discussed. Corresponding author email: korab@iki.rssi.ru

Studies of the Earths plasmasphere with INTERBALL satellites Galina Kotova Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya, Moscow, Russia The INTERBALL mission collected a large amount of data on cold plasma obtained in the Earths plasmasphere by INTERBALL 1 (1995-2000) and INTERBALL 2 (1996-1997) with its subsatellite MAGION 5 (1999-2001). Organized data base is also supplemented by magnetic activity indices and solar wind parameters. This data are of significant importance for plasmasphere studies, because they include not only detailed density but also temperature measurements. These latter measurements are much limited in the plasmasphere. The main results of the experimental and theoretical studies of the Earths plasmasphere obtained until the present are reviewed and compared with the results of other missions. Many interesting results were obtained concerning the distribution of plasma, notch formation and temperature dynamics during magnetic storm, which was also modeled quantitatively. The data are used for the analysis and model reconstruction of plasmaspheric temperature and density distributions in the plasmasphere. Now our task is to reconstruct plasma 2D distribution in meridional planes and then expand this modeling to all magnetic local times taking into account the influence of geomagnetic activity and solar wind. Our model is also tested with the IMAGE data. The model is based on the physical equations of Lemaire, describing plasma distribution in the plasmasphere for the case of thermal equilibrium and collisionless initial plasmasphere partial filling. The parameters of the model have a clear physical sense and permit to estimate a state of plasmasphere refilling. The review is aimed at attracting attention of scientists to studying this region of the Earths magnetosphere since many problems of the plasmasphere physics, first of all, the problems of plasmapause formation and plasmasphere filling and erosion, which are of importance in understanding the relation of the processes proceeding in the Sun and solar wind to the processes observed in the Earths ionosphere and atmosphere, remain unclear.

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Development of electro-optical payloads for a Mars mission

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Manoj Kumar, V.D. Patel, A.R. Srinivas, K.K. Patel, Dhrupesh Shah, Jaya Rathi, Hiren Rambhia, Kurian Mathew, S. S. Sarkar Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad, India

Introduction: A judicious and final choice of designs and configurations for electro-optical payloads for a Mars mission is guided, primarily, by (a) application specific needs and (b) mission requirements and constraints. Based on the recent studies carried out, both ground based and space borne, on Martian terrain and its environs, a lot of interest is generated among the global scientific community about the possibility of existence of life triggered by the detection of methane in the Martian atmosphere as it suggests biological or geological activities of recent origin on the planet [1, 2]. Similarly, a compelling need has been felt to map the surface composition and mineralogy of Mars and to detect hot spots on Martian surface that can point towards sub-surface hydro-thermal systems. It is not without any reason that the past space missions to Mars have carried a colour camera among other instruments. A versatile and multi-purpose camera can image the topography of Martian surface with high geometrical fidelity and can make observations to help in furthering our understanding of events like dust storms, dust devils etc. [3]. Considering the above, design and development of three electro-optical payloads is being carried out for possible inclusion in future MARS missions. This paper outlines configuration and developmental results of the payloads. (1) Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM) - MSM is Fore Optics Beam Splitter Focusing Optics designed to measure methane in the Martian with ppb Collimating Optics accuracy and map its sources. It is based on FabryPerot (FP) etalon filters that work on the principle of multiple beam interferometry. FP etalon provides Detector Etalon Field Stop Etalon extremely narrow, evenly spaced transmission peaks Fabry within the desired spectral band when the condition SWIR Perot Etalon based instrument range (1642nm 1658nm) Focusing Optics two channels of resonance is satisfied. The frequency of the Differential output from channel to correct Inclusion of Reference for ground reflectance and atmospheric spectral lines of the FP etalon proposed for MSM is scattering Detector chosen to coincide with the absorption spectra of the Fig.1: MSM methane gas in the specified spectral range. (2) Thermal Infra-red Imaging Spectrometer (TIS) Plane Reflection Air Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS) is a Grating grating based spectrometer which makes use of an un- Air cooled micro-bolometer array as the detector. One of Fore Collimating Optics Optics the main advantages of using the micro-bolometer is that it does not require cooling. This aids significantly Focusing Optics in reducing the payload size and weight in keeping with Detector the requirements of a planetary mission. The spectrometer will have a minimum of ten Fig.2: TIS Configuration programmable bands in the spectral region of 7 to 14m. TIS will measure the thermal emission from Mars surface. (3) Mars Colour Camera (MCC) - Mars Colour Camera (MCC) is designed to operate in the visible range (0.4 to 0.7). The 20

Lens Fig.3: MCC

Detector

camera is optimized for imaging from a highly elliptical orbit of 500km x 80000km. To take images with GIFOV of 25m with a frame size of 50km x 50km from perigee and cover the full mars disc from apogee, MCC employs a multi-element lens assembly and a 2K2K area array detector with RGB Bayer pattern. Development of Payloads In keeping with the payload development philosophy, the Verification Models (VMs) of the payloads are developed first as a proof of concept. VMs of the above three payloads are realized, characterized and tested. For each of the three payloads, the respective sub-systems have been developed, tested and integrated at the payload level to realize the complete integrated system. Fig. 4(a) to 4(c) show photographs of the realized verification models of MSM, TIS and MCC respectively. Fig. 5 (a) to 5(d) show some of the realized sub-systems and test results obtained during testing of payloads.

Fig. 4(a): MSM (VM)

Fig. 4(b): TIS (VM)

Fig. 4(c): MCC (VM)

Fig. 5(a): MSM Video Processor

Fig. 5(b): MCC Detector Head

Fig. 5(c): Slit image in TIS Focal Plane

Fig. 5(d): Image taken by MCC

References: [1] Mumma, M. J. et al. (2009), Science, 323, 1041-1045. [2] Chizek, M. R. et al., Mapping the Methane on Mars: Seasonal Comparison, Fourth International Workshop on the Mars Atmosphere: Modelling and Observation, 2011. [3] Mathew K. et al, Electro-optical Payloads for the Mars Mission A Proposal from SACISRO, SAC/SEDA/MARS/V5/12/8/2011.
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E-Mail: manojkumar@sac.isro.gov.in

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ROVER IMAGER : DEVELOPMENT & REALIZATION FOR CHANDRAYAAN-2 Manoj Kumar, Minal Sampat, Pradeep Soni, Sukamal Paul, S R Joshi, Satish Sharma and Arup RoyChowdhury Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad 380 015, India Introduction: The second Indian lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2 will have Orbiter, Lander and Rover modules. The Orbiter and Rover module are being developed by ISRO. The Rover module will be released from the Lander upon soft landing on the lunar surface. The Rover will perform the mission objectives of mobility on lunar surface and conduct scientific experiments. Objective: The Rover Imager (RI) is a high-density colour camera capable of taking images upto rate of 30fps. The primary objective of the RI is: Panoramic and video imaging of the lunar surface Collect data for terrain study and comparing with data taken by TMC1 and TMC2 Study regolith displacement due to the rover movement Deciding locations for sample collection and for guiding the in-situ experiments by other rover instruments View Lander for assessment at various mission phases

Features of RI: Pixel size : 2.2m, 1600X1200 active pixels Ground sampling : 0.6mm@1m (0.6 mrad) FOV : 50 deg. Frame Size/resolution: HD Format No. of Bands : Visible with color (RGB) outputs Power : < 2W Camera head Weight : < 40g

Figure 1: Rover Camera

The Rover Imager will consist of two parts, namely camera head and processing electronics. Camera head will consist of miniature camera module and a buffer to interface with processing electronics. The processing electronics will configure the camera at power on and process camera output data. The Rover Imager camera head is shown in Figure 1. Camera Head will be mounted at a suitable location to take images while Control Electronics (FPGA Logic) would be housed in the Warm Electronics Box (WEB) of Rover.
REC / WEB
+4.6 V RCH-1 Clk_ Logic-1 SCL SDA RI_Mode

RCH (Rover Camera Head)

REC / WEB

CLK-A
E

Rover Camera

Buff

8-bit parallel data with HS YNC, VS YNC and PCLK

FPGA

Fig.2: Block diagram of Rover Imager 22

Fig.3: Image viewed by

Modeling of the atmospheric water and its isotopic ratio on Mars Takeshi Kuroda Department of Geophysics, Tohoku University, Aoba, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8578, Japan Though the current Mars is a dry planet, there are many topographic evidences of past liquid water flow. Some of the liquid water is thought to have escaped into space, while some seems to have moved to the polar regions and underground. We are starting the study of such water movement and cycle processes in the Mars atmosphere using a Mars general circulation model (MGCM) in connection with the ground layer, photochemistry and escape processes, with the ultimate goal of understanding the history of the environment and habitability on Mars. Recently the existence of very large supersaturation ratio (~10 times) of water vapor has been found, which should make a great impact on the water cycle. The detections of isotopic ratios in water molecules (e.g. D/H and O18/O16) is helping the investigations of the history of water cycle and climate change, as well as the visualization of the physical processes on the water cycle. In this presentation the preliminary results of water cycle including the effects of large supersaturation and the HDO/H2O ratio will be shown. E-mail: tkuroda@pat.gp.tohoku.ac.jp

A model for transport processes I upper ionosphere of Mars Tariq Majeed American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE Observations have shown that intrinsic magnetic field at Mars is lacking while intense crustal magnetic fields exist in the high-latitude regions of the southern hemisphere. The electron density profiles measured in these regions have shown quite variable topside ionospheric structure which seems to violate diffusive equilibrium: the condition that would have been imposed by a magnetic field-free ionosphere. The vertical transport of plasma has been suggested to be the most viable process for the interpretation of such an ionosphere. This vertical transport may be induced by external magnetic fields arising from solar wind interaction with the Martian ionospheric/atmospheric system. Plasma transport may also be induced by meridional winds in the neutral atmosphere or external electric fields. We have developed a 1-D chemical diffusive model to describe plasma transport processes for the upper ionosphere of Mars. For the case of a purely induced horizontal field, the plasma loss is due to both the downward flow and horizontal divergence of ion velocities. However, for the case of a vertical magnetic field, an upward flow of plasma seems to play an important role in the upper ionosphere. The vertical transport of plasma is described in the model by the upward ion flux (i) and

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downward drift velocity (WD). The drift velocity mainly arises due to electric fields and meridional winds. WD in the model is varied from ten to hundreds of meter per second. Plasma transport is also possible by neutral winds whose strength depends on local time and season. This process may produce large currents and localized joule heating. While these transport processes yield the topside electron densities and scale heights in agreement with observations, the photochemical equilibrium prevails near and below the ionospheric peak. The details of the model will be presented.

The atmosphere of Venus and mechanisms of the superrotation Yoshihisa Matsuda Dept. Astronomy and Earth Science, University of Tokyo, Gakugei, Japan In my presentation, after a brief summary of the Venus atmosphere, the mechanisms of the superrotaion are discussed. In the lower and cloud layer (45-70km) of Venus atmosphere a fast zonal flow, called as "superrotation", is predominant. So far, several generation mechanisms have been proposed for explaining the cause of the superrotation: (1) mechanism based on a circulation between day and night sides, (2) mechanism based on thermal tides (gravity waves) and (3) mechanism based on a meridional circulation. While explanations of the essential mechanism of (1)-(3) are given, the mechanism (3) is mainly discussed in my presentation. The recent development of numerical simulations by GCM (General Circulation Model) based on this mechanism is critically reviewed. A problem of multiple equilibrium states (i.e., coexistence of a superrotation and a circulation between day and night sides as a stable solution) is also discussed with reference to Matsuda's theoretical study and recent numerical ones.

Laboratory experiment on impact vapor plume and its implications for origin and evolution of planetary atmospheres Takafumi Matsui Planetary Exploration Research Center, Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan We have been doing laboratory experiments to reveal impact phenomena associated with ultra-high velocity impact. We have done so far successfully the impact experiment at 60 km/s. At such ultra-high impact velocity even silicate vaporize to form impact vapor plume. Physics and chemistry of impact vapor plume affect formation of atmosphere and ocean of planets and satellites, and also probably relate to origin of life on the earth. In this paper we will introduce our experiments and review the recent results, and also discuss its implications for origin and evolution of planetary atmospheres. 24

Comparisons between in situ measurements of the magnetic shadowing of high energy ions at Mars and hybrid model simulations, using contemporary particle and field measurements to define the upstream interplanetary conditions S. McKenna-Lawlor1, E. Kallio2, M. Alho2, R. Jarvinen2 and V. V. Afonin3
1

Space Technology Ireland, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland 2 Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland 3 Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia

Energetic particle data recorded by the SLED instrument aboard Phobos-2 while in circular orbit about Mars in March, 1989 showed the presence of magnetic shadowing. A 3-D, self consistent, hybrid model (HYB-Mars) supplemented by test particle simulations was developed to study the response of the Martian plasma environment to solar disturbances and to interpret, in particular, the SLED observations. The magnetic and electric fields, as well as the properties of high energy ions, present at Mars under conditions of extreme solar disturbance can be derived from HYB-Mars. Our initial study showed that the HYB-Mars model predicted an already well-documented plasma phenomenon at the planet, namely swflow shadowing (identified in the measurements of the ASPERA (plasma) experiment aboard Phobos-2). HYB further, importantly, predicted the occurrence of magnetic shadowing which is qualitatively similar to that recorded by SLED. The simulations in addition suggested that the configuration of a magnetic shadow depends on the pertaining solar wind density and velocity, and on the magnitude and direction of the interplanetary magnetic field. The present work presents a more detailed study where plasma and magnetic field inputs to the HYB model come from measurements made aboard Phobos-2 contemporaneously with the SLED observations. In this way it is possible to realistically match the upstream interplanetary conditions with the configuration of the magnetic shadow recorded at various energies in the SLED data. One-to-one comparisons between the SLED observations and simulated high energy H+ fluxes will be presented in this context and similarities and differences between the observations and simulations discussed

Electrification of aerosols in the atmospheres of Mars and Venus Marykutty Michael and S. N. Tripathi Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India The nature of the aerosols varies, in planetary atmospheres, as does the relative importance of different sources of ion production. The nature of the aerosol and the sources of ion production will be briefly discussed for the atmospheres of Venus, Mars, using the concepts established for the terrestrial atmosphere. Interactions between the ions and aerosols cause,

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charge exchange, which can lead to substantial aerosol charge, and ion removal. Consequently, the charged aerosols are more efficiently scavenged and the particleparticle coagulation rates are modified, influencing particle residence times in the relevant atmosphere. That is, ions are removed in regions with abundant aerosols, affecting the conductivity of the atmosphere. Charging of aerosols in the atmosphere of Mars and the charging of droplets in the atmosphere of Venus will be presented and the effect on the atmospheric conductivity will be discussed.

Martian Ionosphere: The View from MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) D. D. Morgan1 , D. A. Gurnett1 , F. Duru1, F. Nmec2, M. Fillingim3, R. Lillis3, E. Dubinin4, H. Opgenoorth5 , D. J. Andrews5, J. J. Plaut6, I. Mitrofanov7 University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, US Charles Universit;y, Prague, Czech Republic 3 University of California, Berkeley, California, US 4 Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany 5 Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden 6 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, US 7 Space Research Institute (IKI), Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
2 1

Mars Express, an ESA spacecraft in orbit around Mars since 2003, carries a radar sounder, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS). MARSIS is a dual-mode instrument, operating in both subsurface and topside-ionospheric mode. The ionospheric mode, known as Active Ionospheric Sounding (AIS), has undergone about 10000 orbits and collected over a million ionograms, sampling periods of various levels of solar activity, different Martian seasons, the full range of latitude, both day and night. We shall here discuss a variety of work with MARSIS AIS, past, present, and future. Among the ongoing projects discussed, we shall describe how MARSIS electron density profiles can be incorporated with models of nightside particle precipitation to improve our understanding of the interaction of the ionosphere with crustal magnetic fields and consequently the generation of Martian aurora and the nightside ionosphere. We shall discuss how the electron density profile from MARSIS responds to changes in solar activity as we near the peak of the solar cycle. Finally, we shall note how intense space weather events such as strong CMEs cause drastic changes in the near-terminator ionosphere with possible implications for atmospheric loss.

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Evolution of Mars Atmospere: Results from Martian meteorites S.V.S. Murty PLANEX, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad The atmospheres of Venus, Earth and Mars are of secondary origin, mostly contributed by the degassing of the solid planet. They are also different both in quantity and composition. Due to differences in thermal evolution which determines the extent of degassing from the solid planet and the mass of the planet which determines the retention/escape rate of atmospheric species, the composition and evolution of the atmosphere is different for these three planets. The first glimpses of the composition of Mars atmosphere were provided by the in situ measurements by Viking missions. This crucial data has served as a finger print in establishing SNC meteorites parentage to Mars, which have in turn provided more precise data on Mars atmospheric composition. Most of our current knowledge on Mars atmospheric composition and its evolution with time stems from the data obtained from Martian meteorites. In the noble gas laboratory at PRL, we have been studying Martian meteorites to understand the evolution of nitrogen and noble gases in the atmosphere and interior of Mars. In this talk, the current knowledge about the composition of Mars atmosphere will be discussed and the need for further in situ measurements by future Mars missions will be emphasised.

Japanese Venus mission AKATSUKI Masato Nakamura Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS)/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan Japanese Venus Climate Orbiter 'AKATSUKI' (PLANET-C) was proposed in 2001 with strong support by international Venus science community and approved as an ISAS mission soon after the proposal. AKATSUKI and ESAs Venus Express complement each other in Venus climate study. Various coordinated observations using the two spacecraft have been planned. Also participating scientists from US have been selected. The mission life we expected was more than 2 Earth years in Venus orbit. AKATSUKI was successfully launched at 06:58:22JST on May 21, by H-IIA F17. After the separation from H-IIA, the telemetry from AKATSUKI was normally detected by DSN Goldstone station (10:00JST) and the solar cell paddles' expansion was confirmed. AKATSUKI was put into the 3-axis stabilized mode in the initial operation from Uchinoura station and the critical operation was finished at 20:00JST on the same day. The malfunction, which happened during the Venus Orbit Insertion (VOI) on 7 Dec, 2010 is as follows. We set all commands on Dec. 5. Attitude control for Venus orbit insertion (VOI) was automatically done on Dec. 6. Orbital maneuver engine (OME) was fired 08:49 JST on Dec. 7. 1min. after firing the spacecraft went into the occultation region and we had no

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telemetry, but we expected to continuous firing for 12min. Recording on the spacecraft told us later that, unfortunately the firing continued just 152sec. and stopped. The reason of the malfunction of the OME was the blocking of check valve of the gas pressure line to push the fuel to the engine. We failed to make the spacecraft the Venus orbiter, and it is rotating the sun with the orbital period of 203 days. Most of the fuel still remains, but the OME was found to be broken. We decided to use only RCS for orbit maneuver and 3 minor maneuvers in November 2012 were successfully done so that AKATSUKI will meet Venus in 2015. We are considering several scenarios only using RCS for VOI. It will be hard to keep the equatorial orbit through the VOI in 2015, but if we wait another year and will do the VOI in 2016 there is a chance to have an equatorial orbit. Preferable orbit and the life time of the spacecraft is the trade off. We have to be very careful about the thermal condition during the extended cruise phase. We expected about 2600W/m2 solar flux in the Venus orbit, but it is exposed to more than 3600W/m2 at perihelion (0.6AU from the sun). The temperatures of the instruments exposed to space gradually increased as the spacecraft approaching the perihelion. We try to minimize the number of instruments whose temperatures exceed the allowed upper limits by letting a certain side of the spacecraft face to the sun. Corresponding author email: nakamura.masato@me.com

Photo-electron impact inelastic scattering with the dry ice in the polar cap regions of Mars Siddharth H. Pandya1, K. N. Joshipura1 and B. G. Vaishnav2
1

Department of Physics, Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India 2 Physical Research Laboratory, Navarangpura, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

The CO2 rich planet-Mars is always the centre of attraction amongst the planetary scientists, regardless of their working area, viz. ionospheric modeling, climatology, hydrology etc. With the present interest regarding the dry ice, recently the planet Mars is found to have high altitude clouds containing dry ice [1]. Apart from the atmosphere, the ground polar cap regions of the Mars also possess the significant amount of dry ice condensed above the water ice bad. Viking, Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey observations reveals the thickness of the dry ice in the north polar region is ~1 m as compared to the ~8 m in the southern region during the winter season on the planet. Since the CO2 is the most abundant constituent of the planet, it is of present interest to study the photo-election impact processes with the dry ice. Particularly, the electron impact ionization process, which leads to the production of various ionized and neutral species in the Martian atmosphere and further giving rise to the complex chemistry. A quantum mechanical approach [2-3] has been employed here to estimate the electron impact ionization cross section for the dry ice along the comparative study with its gaseous phase (CO2). Cumulative 28

total inelastic scattering, in terms of the total excitation and total ionization are also calculated and compared with each other. The detailed results will be presented during the symposium. References [1] F. Montmessin et al., J Geophys Res, 112, E11S90 (2007). [2] H. N. Kothari, S. H. Pandya and K. N. Joshipura, J. Phys .B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 44, 125202 (2011). [3] K. N. Joshipura, H. N. Kothari, F. A. Shelat, P. Bhowmik and N. Mason J, J. Phys .B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 43, 135207 (2010).

Ionization in gaseous CO2 and in dry ice by electron impact- Martian relevance Siddharth H. Pandya, K. N. Joshipura and B. G. Vaishnav* Department of Physics, Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India *Physical Research Laboratory, Navarangpura, Ahmedabad, India

The CO2 rich planet Mars is always the centre of attraction amongst the planetary scientists, regardless of their working area, viz. ionospheric modeling, climatology, geology etc. Recently the planet Mars is found to have high altitude clouds containing dry ice [1]. Apart from the Martian atmosphere, the polar cap regions of the planet also contain a significant amount of dry ice, condensed above the water ice bed. Observations from Viking, Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey missions reveal that the thickness of the dry ice in the North Polar Region is ~1 m as compared to ~8 m in the southern region during the winter season on the planet. Since CO2 is the most abundant atmospheric constituent on Mars, it is of interest to study the election impact processes with gaseous and solid CO2. Our present interest is in the electron impact ionization processes with CO2, which lead to the production of various ionized and neutral species in the gaseous and also in icy environments, giving rise to complex chemistries. While e-CO2 ionization has already been considered by us recently [2] the present focus is on the e- impact ionization of the molecules in dry ice structure. A comparison of this ionization in atmosphere and in polar cap regions also holds significance in Martian studies. A quantum mechanical approach outlined in [3-4] has been employed here to estimate the ionization cross section for the dry ice as against that in gaseous CO2. For this purpose our calculations start with total cumulative inelastic cross section, bifurcated into sum-total of all admissible ionizations and electronic excitations. Detailed theoretical results will be presented during the Symposium. The present study is important because there are hardly any investigations on electron scattering in dry ice except in [5-6].

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References [1] F. Montmessin et al, J Geophys Res, 112, E11S90 (2007). [2] S. H. Pandya et al, Advances in Geosciences, Vol. 25: Planetary Science (2010). [3] H. N. Kothari, S. H. Pandya and K. N. Joshipura, J. Phys .B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 44, 125202 (2011). [4] K. N. Joshipura, H. N. Kothari, F. A. Shelat, P. Bhowmik and N.J. Mason, J. Phys .B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 43, 135207 (2010). [5] L. iller et al, Chem. Phys. Lett. 288, 776 (1998). [6] L. iller et al, J. Chem. Phys. 110, 10554 (1999).

Meteoritic Chemistry in the Lower Atmosphere of Mars B. M. Pandya1, S. A. Haider2 Physics Department, C.U.Shah Science college, Ahmedabad, India Department of Space and Atmospheric Sciences, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India.
1

Periodic meteor streams and meteor showers are result of continuous impact of debris and interplanetary dust, which is disintegrated from the periodic comets at their perihelion distance. The meteoric ablation in the Martian ionosphere is investigated and possible existence of meteoric layers in the electron density profiles provides the scope of exploration in the Martian ionosphere. We have analyzed 1500 electron density profiles obtained from radio occultation experiment onboard Mars Global Surveyor to study the physical characteristics of meteoric plasma layers over Mars during the months of January to June, 2005. It is found that 65 electron density profiles were strongly perturbed with peak densities ~ 0.5-1.4 x 1010 m-3 at altitude between 80 km and 105 km due to ablation of meteoroids and subsequent ionization of meteoric atoms. Our analysis suggests that meteoroids ablation caused enhancements in the estimated Total Electron Content (TEC) by a factor of ~ 1.5 to 3.0. Maximum TEC is observed on 21 January and 23 May, 2005, when comets 2007 PL42 and 4015 Wilson-Harrington intersected the orbit of Mars from a close distance 1.49 AU and 1.17 AU respectively. TEC were increased by a factor of ~ 5 to 7 on these days. This is a significant increase in TEC, which might be associated with the meteor showers produced when Mars crossed the dust stream left along the orbit of these comets. Interplanetary dust mainly composed of most abundant metals that have relative concentration of Mg~14.4%, Si~13.6% and Fe~12.1%. We have calculated ion and neutral production rates of these metals in the Martian ionosphere. This maximum deposition rate is observed at altitude between 80 to 100 km that give significant evidence of increased TEC in observed MGS profiles. We have calculated concentration of Mg+, Si+ and Fe+ and their neutrals with magnitude of 104 cm-3 to 105 cm-3, using continuity equations assumed in the steady state. It is observed that these metallic layers are due to meteoric ablation at altitude between 80 km and 100 km. Corresponding author email:physics_bmp@yahoo.com 30

Radio occultation technique for sounding Mars atmosphere Biren D Parmar Indus Institute of Technology and Engg., Rancharda, Via: Thaltej, Ahmedabad, India

Mars has long been the subject of human fascination. Mars, the red planet, is a rocky planet, like Earth, that formed around the same time, yet with only half the diameter of Earth, and a far thinner atmosphere. To get atmospheric conditions of Mars it may not be possible to insitu hence remote sensing technique must be used. Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon, without making physical contact with the object. In modern usage, the term generally refers to the use of aerial sensor technologies to detect and classify objects on Planet (both on the surface, and in the atmosphere and oceans) by means of propagated signals (e.g. electromagnetic radiation emitted from aircraft or satellites). Remote sensing makes it possible to collect data on dangerous or inaccessible areas. This can be further being applied to the Mars mission to get information about the atmospheric conditions remotely. Radio occultation (RO) is a remote sensing technique used for measuring the physical properties of a planetary atmosphere. Hence it is required to have a system for remote sensing of the atmosphere of the Mars, using Radio Occultation and also a data analysis to analyze the data recorded from the Radio Occultation technique. The Radio Occultation Experiment operates on two frequencies of 2.3GHz (S band) and 8.4 GHz (X band).

Modeling Atmospheric Energy Deposition (by energetic ions) Christopher Dennis Parkinson
Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Spaces Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,

MI 48109, USA The structure, dynamics, chemistry, and evolution of planetary upper atmospheres are in large part determined by the available sources of energy. In addition to the solar EUV flux, the solar wind and solar energetic particle (SEP) events are also important sources. Both of these particle populations can significantly affect an atmosphere, causing atmospheric loss and driving chemical reactions. Attention has been paid to these sources from the standpoint of the radiation environment for humans and electronics, but little work has been done to evaluate their impact on planetary atmospheres. At unmagnetized planets or those with crustal field anomalies, in particular, the solar wind and SEPs of all energies have direct access to the atmosphere and so provide a more substantial energy source than at planets having protective global magnetic fields. Additionally, solar wind and energetic particle fluxes should be more significant for planets orbiting more active stars, such as is the case in

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the early history of the solar system for paleo-Venus and Mars. Therefore quantification of the atmospheric energy input from the solar wind and SEP events is an important component of our understanding of the processes that control their state and evolution. Such modeling has been previously done for Earth, Mars and Jupiter using a guiding center precipitation model with extensive collisional physics. Currently, this code is only valid for particles with small gyroradii in strong uniform magnetic fields. There is a clear necessity for a Lorentz formulation that can perform calculations for cases where there is only a weak or nonexistent magnetic field that includes detailed physical interaction with the atmosphere (i.e. collisional physics). We show initial efforts to apply a full Lorentz motion particle transport model to study the effects of particle precipitation in the upper atmospheres of Venus and Mars using a power stopping law approximation, with the view to understanding the relative strengths and weaknesses of each model as we move forward combining the best features of each, viz., a full Lorentz motion particle transport model with detailed collisional physics included. A systematic study of the ionization, excitation, and energy deposition is conducted including a comparison of the influence relative to other energy sources (namely EUV photons) and previous efforts using the guiding center approximation. Corresponding author email: theshire@umich.edu

TMC-2 instrument for Chandrayaan-2 mission: An overview Vishnu D Patel, S R Joshi, Pradeep Soni, Dhrupesh Shah, Sukamal Paul, Minal Sampat, J. C. Karelia, Satish Sharma and Arup RoyChowdhury Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad 380 015, India After success of Chandrayaan-1 mission, ISRO has planned for more enhanced and complex lunar mission having Orbiter and Lander-Rover. TMC-2 is continuation of the previous mission to have total topographic coverage of the moon from polar circular orbit of 200km. Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) was one of the instruments flown on Chandrayaan-1 having stereo imaging capability with 5m ground and vertical sampling from 100km orbit. TMC was a state of art instrument having three views. The images taken by TMC in Chandrayaan-1 are of high quality and detailed topographic mapping of the lunar surface has been undertaken. TMC data is useful for studying smaller craters, rilles, flow structures etc. and generating 3dimensional lunar atlas. It had mapped about 45% of the moon surface. As a continuation for topographic mapping of complete lunar surface, Chandrayaan-2 mission will also carry a similar instrument, TMC-2. It will be further compact instrument than TMC of Chandrayaan1. The challenge in TMC-2 realization is further miniaturization to two-third mass as per mission requirement. It imposes a great constraint on mass of each sub-system of the instrument i.e. optics, detector head assembly, camera electronics and structure. Also, TMC-2 should be consuming lower raw power than its predecessor. Taking all these inputs as the challenges for development of TMC-2, design is revisited. Accordingly, new design

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approaches and technologies are explored towards meeting the performance requirements with a more compact and lighter system. Table 1 summarizes the key features of the instrument in comparison with TMC. Table 1: TMC-2 - Summary of comparison and its salient features SN 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Parameter Altitude Spatial sampling Swath Stereo mode Spectral range Quantization Datarate Gain/Exposure MTF SNR Power Weight TMC of Chandrayaan-1 100km 200km Along track 5m Along track 4.6m Across track 5m Across track 10m 20km 40km 3-view along track, B/H=1 Panchromatic 0.5-0.85m 12 bit 16.2 Mbps/view 4 each >10% ~68 @1.2mW/cm2/str/m >300 @14mW/cm2/str/m) 7.7W (Raw) 6.3 kg TMC-2 200km Along track 4.6m Across track 10m 40km 3-view along track, B/H=1 Panchromatic 0.5-0.85m 12 bit 16.2 Mbps/view 4 each >10% >68 @1.2mW/cm2/str/m) (goal) >300 @14mW/cm2/str/m) <5W (Raw) < 4 kg

Forbidden atomic oxygen line emissions at larger heliocentric distances Susarla Raghuram and Anil Bhardwaj Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, Thiruvananthapuram, India The green (5577 ) and Red-doublet (6300, 6364 ) of atomic oxygen are commonly observed emissions features in the visible cometary spectra. These 5577 and 6300, 6364 emissions are produced due to electron transitions of atomic oxygen 1S 1D and 1D 3P, respectively. We have developed a coupled-chemistry-emission model for these forbidden emissions in the comet Hyakutake by considering all possible production and loss process of O(1S) and O(1D). At large heliocentric distances the dominant species in the cometary coma is CO. Recently, the green and red-doublet emissions are observed in comets C/2006 W3 Christensen and C/2007 Q3 Siding Spring at 3.13 and 2.96 AU, respectively, where CO is the dominant gas in the cometary coma. We applied our model on these comets. It is found that in these comets the photodissociation of CO and CO2 is the major source and radiative decay is the main sink mechanism for the metastable O(1S). The main production of O(1D) is through radiative decay of O(1S), following which are the photodissociation process of Obearing species. The quenching of O(1D) by cometary species is significant up to 200 km and beyond that radiative decay takes over. The calculated emission profiles along the projected

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distances reveal that the green line intensity is higher than red-doublet emission below cometocentric distance of 100 km. The calculated green to red-doublet ratio (G/R ratio) in the inner coma (up to 100 km) is more than 1 and beyond this distance it gradually falls to 0.1. Even though these emissions are produced from single species (mainly from CO), the G/R ratio value over the coma is varying by an order of magnitude. Moreover, the photorate for the production of O(1S) from CO is uncertain. Hence, we conclude that the G/R ratio may be not suitable index to examine the CO and CO2 abundances in comets. Our calculated slit averaged G/R ratio is consistent with the observations. Corresponding author email: raghuramsusarla@gmail.com

A compact Lyman alpha photometer for planetary upper atmospheric studies theory and development aspects V.L.N. Sridhar Raja, Hanumantha Rao M.V., Kalyani K., Aparna M., Anand Chandran, Durga Pushpavalli T. J., Laxmiprasad A.S. and Viswanathan M.* Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS), Indian Space Research Organization, Bangalore-560 058, India One of the most challenging multidisciplinary problems in geophysics and atmospheric science is the study of the evolution and escape of planetary atmospheres. Owing to no or little intrinsic magnetic field, the upper atmosphere of the planets like Venus, Saturn, Mars etc., is always exposed to the solar wind that triggers the photo-dissociation of water by producing H and D, which are subsequently lost to space over time. Measurements of the atmospheric deuterium to hydrogen abundance ratio (D/H ratio) are significantly vital not only to examine the escape process of the current atmosphere but also to infer the loss process of water in the evolutionary history of planetary atmosphere. The team at Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems-LEOS is currently directing its efforts towards the development of a miniaturized ultra-violet photometer, namely, Lyman Alpha Photometer-LAP, primarily dedicated for D/H measurements of planetary upper atmospheric studies. This instrument will measure the amount of deuterium compared to the amount of hydrogen in planets exosphere, which is the present-day D/H ratio. Comparison of the present and original D/H ratio (estimated from observations of the D/H ratio in comets and asteroids, which are believed to be pristine remnants of our solar systems formation) will allow us to calculate how much of hydrogen, and therefore water has been lost over planets lifetime. Proto-LAP instrument that is currently under development is a compact instrument that occupies a typical volume of 216 mm x 134 mm x 90 mm and weighs to a mass of < 1.5 kg with estimated power consumption of less than a 5 Watt and supports the spacecraft operational altitude range of 200 km to 20000 km. LAP operates on the principle of resonant scattering and absorption at Lyman- wavelengths of H and D i.e., 121.56 nm, 121.53 nm respectively and comprises of 25 mm ( ) x 60 mm (L) cylindrical metal/glass based gas cells filled with pure H2 and D2 gases. This paper primarily focuses on the executed theoretical studies, engineering aspects, development phases of the instrument and finally sheds the light on the outcomes of the executed first-cut experimental investigations. Corresponding author email: mvis@leos.gov.in

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Inter-relationship between atmospheric chemistry and mixing state of aerosols Kirpa Ram1 and M.M.Sarin2
2

Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of Tokyo, Japan Department of Geoscience, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad-380009, India

Atmospheric chemistry plays an important role in changing the morphology and microphysics (mixing state) of aerosols and vice-versa. For example, water-soluble organic matter (WSOM) and inorganic constituents (SO42-, NO3- and NH4+) are directly linked to the activation of cloud condensation nucleation (CCN), hygroscopic growth of aerosols and in modifying their optical properties. Several studies have addressed to the issue of internal mixing of black carbon (BC) with the ambient aerosols and relative changes in their optical properties. However, the present-day climate models assume that BC is of spherical shape and externally mixed, thus, leading to a large off-set in the atmospheric radiative forcing due to aerosols. In addition, heterogeneous chemistry of acidic species occurring in the gaseous phase can alter the physical and chemical properties of the atmospheric mineral dust. Its subsequent deposition to the ocean surface can have large impact on the marine ecosystem. Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation is also being increasingly recognized as an important process in contributing to the air-pollution and poor visibility over urban regions. However, very little information is available on the SOA formation and atmospheric chemistry over Northern India dominated by biomass burning emissions. Our recent results on the temporal variability in the chemical composition of atmospheric aerosols, secondary formation of species and neutralization processes over urban regions will be presented in the symposium. E-mail: kirpa81@gmail.com

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Access to space through ISRO launch vehicles S Ramakrishnan Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), ISRO, India

Climbing out of the Earths gravity well and transcending the dense atmospheric shield is the most energy intensive crucial first step in the journey into space and the Launch Vehicles are the primary viable means of accomplishing this task. India acquired the capability to orbit a satellite in 1980, when SLV-3 the indigenously developed all solid launcher deployed the 40 kg Rohini satellite around earth. Tremendous progress has been made in this area in the last three decades and today, India is one among the leading space-faring nations with assured access to space through the work-horse operational launcher PSLV, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. PSLV which was developed for servicing the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite programme has performed an unbroken string of twenty successful missions, including Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) deployment and the much acclaimed Chandrayaan-I, the mission to Moon. Progressive performance enhancement measures have improved the capability of PSLV, enabling passenger payloads to be carried along with the main satellite, opening up low cost launch opportunities for mini and micro satellites from across the globe. PSLV has so far successfully deployed about thirty auxiliary payloads including experimental satellites built by university students. PSLV is the launcher proposed to carry the Spacecraft for the first Indian Mars Mission The Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is yet to be operationalised and the next launch GSLV-D5 to flight qualify the indigenous cryogenic stage is targeted by end 2012. GSLV-MkIII (LVM3) a medium lift vehicle with a capability to deploy 4 ton to GTO and about 10 ton in LEO is the next generation launcher, under development at ISRO and is expected to come into service by 2015. This lecture will give an overview of Indian Launch Vehicle programme, the current operational launch capabilities, the payload interfaces and forth-coming launch opportunities on PSLV/GSLV. Corresponding author email: s_ramakrishnan@lpsc.gov.in

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Correlation between Solar wind parameter and geomagnetic storm condition during cycle-23 Balveer S. Rathore, Subhash C. Kaushik and Dinesh C. Gupta School of Study in Physics, Jiwaji University Gwalior, India The study is made statistically between the Dst strength (used as an indicator of the geomagnetic activity) and the peak value obtained by solar wind plasma parameters and IMF B as well as its components. We have used the hourly values of Dst index and the wind measurements taken by various satellites. We observed that IMF B is highly geo-effective during the main phase of magnetic storms, while it more significant at the time of storm peak, which is further contributed by southward component of IMF Bz, substantiating earlier findings. The correlation between Dst and wind velocity is higher, as compared with IMF Bz and ion density. It has been verified that geomagnetic storm intensity is correlated well with the total magnetic field strength of IMF better than with its southward component. Corresponding author email: balveer_singhra@yahoo.co.in

Devlopment of imaging infrared spectrometer (IIRS) for Chandrayaan-2 Anish R Saxena, Arup Banerjee, Amiya Biswas, Sami ur Rehaman, Sunil Bhati, Arun Bharadwaj, S R Joshi, Sandeep Somani, J C Karelia, Satish Sharma and Arup RoyChowdhury Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad 380 015, India Indias first mission Chandrayaan-1 instruments collected very significant data over the mission duration. In continuation Chandrayaan-2 mission is planned. Chandrayaan-2 will have an Orbiter and Lander-Rover. This mission is intended towards comprehensive coverage of the moon surface, with goals supplementing and complementing the measurements carried out by Chadrayaan-1. The orbiter will have hyper spectral Imaging Infrared Spectrometer payload for thermal mapping and Mineralogical investigations. The prime objectives of IIRS are as follows Minerals mapping with high spatial and spectral resolution for lunar evolution study. To understand the mare volcanism and basaltic variability on Moon. To detect signatures of hydroxyl (OH) and water (H2O) molecules. Detection of Ice signatures on/within the faintly illuminated polar craters. Thermal inertia mapping of lunar surface using night & day time temperature differences.

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The high spatial and spectral resolution data of IIRS will significantly improve upon the available mineral compositional information, detection of hydroxyl (OH) and water (H2O) molecules and thermal inertia mapping of lunar surface. Major design challenges for Instrument realization are : Single optics design for wider range. IR Background minimization and radiometric performance. Opto-mechanical design to cater the radiometric performance of the instrument. Thermal design of the instrument. Low power miniaturized electronics. Payload characterization in lab. Table 1: IIRS features GSD (m) Swath (km) Spectral range (nm) Spectral resolution (nm) NEdR (W/m2/sr/m) SNR No of spectral bands Quantization 80 40 800 to 5000 < 20 < 0.05 500 256 12

Imaging spectrometer consists of a fore-optics, a dispersing element and an imaging instrument. The fore-optics is used to collect the signal at the required ground resolution. This signal is then spectrally dispersed and imaged onto an area detector. Following figures show the optical schematic and the IIRS instrument.

Optical Schematic of IIRS

IIRS instrument

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Study of electron density profiles in the upper ionosphere of Mars in presence of crustal magnetic anomalies S. P. Seth Bhavans Sheth R. A. College of Science, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, 380 001, India. Here, in this paper we have analyzed 220 electron density profiles from May5-29, 1999, between latitude range (64.7-69.1S) that are confined to southern high latitude in presence of crustal magnetic fields. In some of these electron densities profiles, we observe unusually large changes in the electron density over a short vertical distance. These unusual changes often lead to localized decreases in electron density, but can often lead to localized increases in the electron density. We call this as an anomalous feature observed in the electron density profiles in the upper ionosphere of Mars. These anomalous profiles are found to be located in the regions where the magnetic field is strong. Various possible association between the field which affects the plasma transport and the anomalous features are discussed.

Precipitation of high-energy electrons, protons and hydrogen atoms into the upper atmospheres of the terrestrial planets - modelling and comparison with observations V.I. Shematovich Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences 48 Pyatnitskaya str., Moscow, Russian Federation A complex of the Monte Carlo models to investigate the kinetics and transport of the highenergy electrons, protons and hydrogen atoms in the upper atmospheres of the terrestrial planets was developed (Gerard et al., 2000; Shematovich et al., 2008; Shematovich et al., 2011). These models are based on the stochastic interpretation of the collisions of the highenergy particles and the ambient atmospheric gas with taking into account the measured scattering angle distributions (Gerard et al., 2000). The applications of the developed models will be illustrated on the following problems: The line shapes of the auroral hydrogen emissions were obtained using the Monte Carlo kinetic model of proton precipitation into the auroral atmosphere. In this model both processes of energy degradation and scattering angle redistribution in the momentum and charge transfer collisions of high-energy proton/hydrogen flux with the ambient atmospheric gas were considered at the microphysical level. Calculations show that collisional spreading of the precipitating proton/hydrogen flux is the dominant process leading to the formation of extended wings and peak shifts in the hydrogen line profiles. In all simulations it was found that the peak shift from the rest line wavelength is decreasing with increasing proton energy. These model predictions were confirmed by the analysis of ground-based H- line observations from Poker Flat (Gerard et al., 2005).

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A Monte Carlo model of the electron transport has been developed to calculate the collisioninduced component of the Mars dayglow emissions (Shematovich et al., 2008). The model predictions had been compared with SPICAM observations of CO and CO2+ FUV emissions. It was found that model reproduces well the observations with the adopted values of collision and excitation cross sections. The peak altitudes are approximately the same for both CO Cameron bands and the CO2+(B2+ - X2) doublet. The differences between the calculated for a mean value of SZA=48 and observed emission rates for the CO Cameron bands and CO2+(B2+ - X2) doublet are less than 30% and 10% in the peak region, respectively. Calculations suggest the presence of seasonal variations of the altitude of the peak emissions of the CO Cameron bands and CO2+ (B2+ - X2) bands. A Monte Carlo model was developed to solve the kinetic equation for the H/H+ transport in the upper Martian atmosphere with taking into account the induced magnetic field (Shematovich et al., 2011). The upward H and H+ fluxes were calculated, values that can be measured. An energy spectrum of the down moving protons at 500 km adopted from the Mars Express ASPERA-3 measurements in the range 700 eV 20 keV was used as an input parameter. The particle and energy fluxes of the downward moving protons were equal to 3.0106 cm-2 s-1 and 1.410-2 erg cm-2 s-1. It was found, that 12% of particle flux and 9% of the energy flux of the precipitating protons is backscattered by the Martian upper atmosphere, if no induced magnetic field is taken into account in the simulations. If a 20 nT horizontal magnetic field, a typical field measured by Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) in the altitude range of 85 km500 km, was included in the model, it was found that up to the 40% - 50% of the energy flux of the precipitating protons is backscattered depending on the velocity distribution of the precipitating protons. It was concluded that the induced magnetic field plays the crucial role in the transport of charged particles in the upper atmosphere of Mars and, therefore, that it determines the energy deposition of the solar wind. References Grard J.-C., B. Hubert, D.V. Bisikalo, and V.I. Shematovich, A model of the Lyman- line profile in the proton aurora, J. Geophys. Res., 105, 15795-15806, 2000. Grard J.-C., V.I. Shematovich, D.V. Bisikalo, and D. Lummerzheim, A Monte Carlo model of auroral hydrogen emission line profiles, Annales Geophysicae, 23, 1432-1439, 2005. Shematovich V. I., D. V. Bisikalo, J.-C. Grard, C. Cox, S.W. Bougher, and F. Leblanc, Monte Carlo model of the electron transport for the calculations of Mars dayglow emissions. J. Geophys. Res., 113, 2008, doi:10.1029/2007JE002938. Shematovich V. I., D. V. Bisikalo, C. Dival, S. Barabash, G. Stenberg, H. Nilsson,Y. Futaana, M. Holmstrom, and J.-C. Grard, Proton and hydrogen atom transport in the Martian upper atmosphere with an induced magnetic field, J. Geophys. Res., 116, 2011, doi:10.1029/2011JA017007. Corresponding author email: shematov@inasan.ru

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Generation of synthetic radiance observations for INSAT-3D Sounder Munn V. Shukla, Pradeep K. Thapliyal, C. M . Kishtawal, Jagat H. Bisht and P. K. Pal Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Group, Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad, India The atmospheric conditions over India always aroused interest of atmospheric scientist to explore it more comprehensively. Understanding and predicting the Indian summer monsoon has always posed a serious challenge in front of scientists and forecasters. The available Numerical weather Prediction (NWP) models are very good tool for predicting future atmospheric conditions, however its performance is severely limited by the initial conditions. In absence of accurate initial atmospheric conditions the skill of forecast is deteriorated. Since the atmospheric phenomena are extended to very large scale, therefore, space based observations are best suited for the measurement of atmospheric conditions extended over a vast geographical area. In absence of dense network for the measurement of important atmospheric parameters such as temperature and humidity profiles space based measurements provide the wealth of atmospheric data. India has launched many satellites in polar and geostationary orbit for various applications including ocean and atmospheric observations, e.g., Oceansat-1/2, Megha-Tropiques and INSAT series of satellites. India is scheduled to launch INSAT-3D satellite that will carry a 6-channel Imager and 18-channel infrared sounder on-board. INSAT-3D will be first geostationary sounder over Indian region and will provide profiles of atmospheric temperature and humidity. It will also provide the quantitative measurement of total column ozone and total precipitable water. To formulate or to validate INSAT-3D Sounder retrieval algorithm prior to its launch, it is essential to have synthetic/simulated observations. Several studies have been carried out to test and validate the retrieval algorithms for future meteorological satellite missions. In all such studies a simulated radiance dataset is generated using diverse training profiles and a radiative transfer model. The present study proposes a novel method to generate a synthetic radiance dataset for future INSAT-3D Sounder. In this study, first a training dataset is taken and then using PFAAST radiative transfer model simulations a matching dataset is prepared. This matching dataset is used for generating regression coefficients. For the testing of complete retrieval methodology, a testing dataset is prepared using Metop-IASI hyperspectral radiances. The IASI radiances are real observations and, therefore, assumed to be the best test bed for retrieval methodology for INSAT-3D. IASI radiances are spectrally mapped over INSAT-3D sensor response function and these radiances are further interpolated to proposed INSAT-3D viewing region. The retrieval of temperature and humidity profiles is carried out using this data and is validated with IASI level-2 profiles. The errors in temperature and humidity profiles are well within the range of mission requirements and comparable to similar existing sounder, such as GOES-12, NOAA-ATOVS. Corresponding author email: munnvinayak@sac.isro.gov.in

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Pulsars as universe phenomenon with terrestrial planets Gurpreet Sidana, Department of Physics, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar 143001, India

When a star dies and its light fades away, it gets transformed into a pulsar. It then vanishes from the visible region, but is there in the form gravity (energy) sending out radio signals instead of light waves. As an astronomical object, it is about 15 kms in diameter. It emits a radio signal in two beams that sweep across the space. The pulsating radio signal explains the origin of the name "pulsar". At the position of the sky with celestial co-ordinate 191316, them pulsar's radio signals may interact with atmosphere around Mars affecting the atmospheric phenomenon and solar winds. We present an intuitive understanding of these phenomena, which can be observed by future spaceships. Corresponding author email: gs079398@gmail.com

Thermal tide mechanism of the Venus atmospheric superrotation Masahiro Takagi Kyoto Sangyo University, Kyoto, Japan The Venus atmospheric superrotation is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the planetary meteorology. So far several hypotheses have been proposed to explain how the superrotation is generated and maintained. However, the real mechanism remains unclear. The thermal tide mechanism was originally proposed by Fels and Lindzen (1974) and Plumb (1975). In this mechanism, the prograde mean zonal flow (superrotation) is generated at the cloud levels where the thermal tides are excited. The thermal tides are gravity waves excited by the solar heating. It is well-known in the terrestrial meteorology that momentum is transported by waves. In the Venus atmosphere, the solar flux is strongly absorbed at the cloud levels (about 45-80 km). It is believed that the thermal tides are excited there, and propagate upward and downward, with zonal momentum transported. Using a linear model on the sphere, it has been shown by Takagi and Matsuda (2005, 2006) that the semidiurnal tide (the thermal tide with a zonal wavenumber of 2) excited at the cloud levels can reach the ground, and the retrograde mean zonal flow is induced near the ground. It is argued that this momentum transport is balanced with the surface friction in the layer adjacent to the ground, and the net momentum may be supplied from the solid Venus to maintain the atmospheric superrotation. This mechanism has been investigated further by Takagi and Matsuda (2007) by using a GCM (general circulation model). It has been shown

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that realistic superrotation extending from the ground to 80 km is generated by the momentum transport associated with the thermal (semidiurnal) tides. The zonal velocity is 60-100 m/s near the cloud top level. Recently, Lebonnois et al. (2010) improved the radiative process in their Venus GCM. The result implied that the thermal tides are important to maintain the superrotation in their model. It has been shown by recent numerical studies (Yamamoto and Takahashi 2003; Lee et al. 2007; Kido and Wakata 2008) that the Gierasch mechanism, which is another mechanism of the Venus atmospheric superrotation, may work in the Venus atmosphere. It should be pointed out that the thermal tide mechanism and the Gierasch mechanism are closely related, since the thermal tides and the mean meridional circulation, which plays an important role in the Gierasch mechanism, may interact with each other through the mean zonal flow (superrotation). It is important to investigate their dynamical interaction in order to elucidate the Venus atmospheric superrotation. Corresponding author email: takagi.masahiro@cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp

Resonant wave-particle interaction in the Jovian magnetosphere and diffuse aurora A.K.Tripathi1, 2, R.P.Singhal1, K.P.Singh2, O.N.Singh1
2

Department of Applied Physics, Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi, India Department of Electronics Engineering, Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi, India

Magnetospheric charged particles precipitation is an important energy source for Jovian upper atmosphere. This provides a means via auroral observations of monitoring electron and plasma wave activity within the magnetosphere. Resonant wave-particle interaction is the dominant process for scattering electrons into the loss-cone. These electrons are then precipitated into the upper atmosphere producing diffuse aurora. Two wave modes, which are responsible for pitch-angle scattering are: electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) and whistler mode waves. A detailed discussion of ECH and whistler mode waves observed in the Jovian magnetosphere is presented. Numerical modeling details of temporal growth rate of plasma waves, pitch-angle scattering of waves and electron precipitation flux due to resonant wave-particle interaction are provided. The magnetic field geometry of Jovian magnetosphere is taken into account using VIP 4 model. Plasma densities and temperatures used in the model are described. Results are discussed in the light of observations of Jovian diffuse aurora.

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Electron pitch-angle scattering leading to diffuse auroral precipitation A.K.Tripathi1, 2, R.P.Singhal1, K.P.Singh2, O.N.Singh1
2

Department of Applied Physics, Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi, India Department of Electronics Engineering, Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi, India

Earths diffuse aurora occurs over a broad latitude range and is caused primarily by the precipitation of low energy electrons originating in the central plasma sheet. Two distinct classes of magnetospheric plasma waves, electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) and whistler mode chorus waves could be responsible for the electron scattering that leads to diffuse auroral precipitation. Dispersion relation for ECH waves have been solved to calculate temporal growth rate profiles using in situ plasma parameters. These are used to represent wave energy distribution with frequency to estimate the rates of pitch-angle diffusion as a function of spatial locations. Calculations have been performed at two spatial locations, one inside the plasmapause (L 6) and other outside the plasmapause (L6) for particular wave mode. Results are discussed in the light of observations of Earths diffuse aurora.

GCR generated aerosol electrification and the effects on cloud microphysics in terrestrial planets S. N. Tripathi Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India The major process responsible for the ion production in the lower atmospheres of terrestrial planets is galactic cosmic rays (GCR). The interactions of ions with aerosols and cloud droplets cause charge exchange, which leads to substantial charges on aerosols and droplets. The ion production rates and the nature of aerosols will be presented for the atmospheres of Earth, Venus and Mars. Consequently, particleparticle coagulation rates are modified, influencing particle residence times in the relevant atmosphere. Also ions are removed in regions with abundant aerosol, which may preclude charge flow in an atmosphere, such as that associated with an atmospheric electrical circuit. In the terrestrial atmosphere, droplets as well as the aerosol particles within the cloud are charged in presence of ions. The collision efficiency between the charged aerosols and charged droplets is calculated and particle scavenging within the cloud is estimated. This process is studied for different solar conditions as the GCR flux varies for solar minimum and maximum conditions and also for different latitudes. The effects of enhanced scavenging of charged aerosols on interstitial aerosol distribution will be shown and implications to cloud microphysics discussed. The accumulation of charges on cloud particles, which are present at altitudes of 45 to 70 km in the atmosphere of Venus, will be presented. The effect of droplet charging on the conductivity of the atmosphere and the lightning activity will also be discussed. The

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importance of aerosol charging for the conductivity variations of the lower Martian atmosphere during both day and night will also be presented.

References Michael, M., M. Barani and S.N. Tripathi, Prediction of electrical conductivity and aerosol charging in the lower atmosphere of Mars, Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L04201, doi:10.1029/2006GL028434, 2007. Michael, M., S.N. Tripathi, W. Borucki and R. C. Whitten, Highly charging of particles by ion attachment in the atmosphere of Venus, J. Geophys. Res. - Planets, 114, EO4008, doi:10.1029/2008JE003258, 2009. Srivastva, A.K. and S.N. Tripathi, Numerical study for space charge within a stratiform cloud, Journal of Earth System Science, 119(5), 627-638, 2010. Tripathi, S.N., M. Michael and R.G. Harrison, Profiles of Ion and Aerosol Interactions in Planetary Atmospheres, Space Science Review, DOI 10.1007/s11214-008-9367-7, 2008. Tripathi, S.N., S. Vishnoi, S. Kumar and R.G. Harrison, Computationally efficient expression for the collision efficiency between electrically charged aerosol particles and cloud droplets, Quarterly Journal of Royal Meteorological Society, 132, 1717-1731, 2006. Tripathi, S.N. and R.G. Harrison, Enhancement of contact nucleation by scavenging of charged aerosol particles, Atmospheric Research, 62(1), 57-70, 2002.

Atmospheric phenomena on Mars Kushan Vadwala Indus Institute of Technology & Engineering University, Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad, India Mars has long been the subject of human fascination. Mars, the red planet, is a rocky planet, like Earth, that formed around the same time, yet with only half the diameter of Earth, and a far thinner atmosphere.Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon, without making physical contact with the object. In modern usage, it refers to the use of aerial sensor technologies to detect and classify objects on Planet (both on the surface, and in the atmosphere and oceans) by means of propagated signals. This can be further being applied to the Mars mission to get information about the atmospheric conditions remotely. Radio occultation (RO) is a remote sensing technique used for measuring the physical properties of a planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Mars is relatively thin and is composed mostly of carbon dioxide (95.32%). The atmospheric pressure on the surface of Mars varies from around 30 Pascals (0.0044 psi) on Olympus Mons's peak to over 1,155 Pascals (0.1675 psi) in the depths of Hellas Planitia. However, the scale height of the atmosphere is about 11 kilo-meters (6.8 mi), somewhat higher than Earth's 7 kilo-meters (4.3 mi). The atmosphere on Mars consists of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6%argon, and contains traces of oxygen, water, and methane, for a mean molar mass of 43.34

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g/mol. The atmosphere is quite dusty, giving the Martian sky a light brown or orange color when seen from the surface; data from the Mars Exploration Rovers indicate that suspended dust particles within the atmosphere are roughly 1.5 micro-meters across.

Study of lunar soil environment for assessing feasibility of civil engineering constructions on moon surface I. Venugopa1 and M. Annadurai2
2

C&MG, ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bangalore, India IRS & SSS, ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bangalore, India

Establishing an extended human presence on the Moon surface could vastly reduce the cost of future space exploration projects. Further, Lunar bases will be very much useful for the spacecrafts to be launched deep into space due to reduced gravity and lesser escape velocity. Hence there is a need to re-orient our technical expertise and knowledge to initiate civil engineering planning and construction activity on Moons surface to enable future human settlement - which is required for future challenging space programs. This technical paper makes a humble attempt to understand the emerging needs for civil engineering analysis-design and construction activities on the Moon for the future lunar/ Human Space Programs and also discusses relevance of various engineering properties of LUNAR SOIL to work out suitable design philosophy and strategy for realization of lunar civil engineering structures. Most of essential materials required for construction of permanent lunar bases or test beds/infrastructure facilities for future missions to mars and beyond need to be produced from the resources available on the lunar surface itself. Therefore, we need to carry out enough research work for utilizing the in-situ resources available on moon surface so that the transportation of materials from earth can be practically avoided. This involves thorough research and understanding of lunar regolith with respect to its mineralogical composition, chemical and physical properties most importantly, geo mechanical properties to asses its suitability for engineering applications especially for construction industry. This also requires extensive analysis,design and research work which needs large quantities of lunar regolith either pertaining to high land or mare land. But unfortunately the amount of lunar regolith brought back to the earth from various lunar missions is too less to be used for such extensive engineering experimentations. Therefore there is a compelling need to develop and produce bulk quantities of lunar soil simulant which can be used for various research works under the following headings. (1) To study the behavior of the material with respect to compressibility, settlement and shear strength due to cohesion and internal angle of friction in order to analyze/ design and detail the necessary foundation structures.

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(2) In the absence of atmosphere and humidity, we need to evaluate short term and long term settlement characteristics under the conditions of sustained loadings. (3) The lunar environment has got extreme temperature variation ranging from as low as -150 degree Celsius to as high as 107 degree Celsius -hence we have to process a suitable material which can be used to withstand such extreme environmental conditions. (4) We can take up necessary research work for using lunar soil simulant for making strong building blocks with suitable additives-which can impart strength as well as durability against such extreme environment conditions apart from dimensional stability. (5) A robotic mechanism need to be developed which should be able to process and produce large quantum of building blocks by using the actual lunar regolith on moon surface. (6) Specially designed light metal alloy frame works can be fabricated and transported to the moon which can be used for erecting of shell work. (7) Funicular shaped floor profiles can be designed which can be easily assembled on moon to erect curved slab panels in modules of size 2m x 2m so that any required size of floor layout can be realized. (8) The filling media can be of lunar regolith itself with necessary spray binding chemicals which can impart necessary intra particle bonding characteristics. (9) Specially processed and manufactured PVC sheets with self adhesive properties can be used as protective, coatings for external walls and roof slabs to protect against radiation effects/ Bombardments etc. The study carried out so far on Lunar Soil Simulants suggests that the various engineering properties like cohesion stress ,angle of internal friction/bulk density, shear deformation modulus, cohesive modulus of deformation, sinkage exponent and friction modulus of deformation etc. indicate that the Lunar Regolith can be good foundation strata with adequate bearing capacity to support various super imposed gravity loads and also the same regolith can be suitably modified to make durable building blocks for construction industry.

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Lidar (LAMP) remote sensing of aerosols and clouds in the troposhere S. Viswanathan1 and Y. Bhavani Kumar2
1

Institute of Remote Sensing, College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, Chennai, India 2 National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), Gadanki, AP, India.

Aerosols are one of the key atmospheric constituents that influence the Earths radiation budget. A detailed characterization of optical and physical properties of aerosols is required to understand the uncertainties in the modelling of the planets radiative forcing. LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is useful in mapping aerosol variations throughout the atmospheric column and therefore currently they have become a central technology in aerosol research. LAMP (Lidar for Atmospheric Measurements and Probing), the industrial grade lidar developed by General Asia Optics Limited (GOAL), Pondicherry under technical know-how from National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), Gadanki is operational at NARL site and at some more sites in the country. Recently LAMP systems have been installed at two more geographical locations namely The North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC), Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational SciencES, (ARIES). An effort has been put in to use for analysis software using MATLAB to retrieve atmospheric parameters from the LAMP data for the above mentioned geographic locations. A state-of-art algorithm is developed for the first time for analysis purpose to remove different kinds of noise, path losses associated with the received signal. Aerosol Backscatter coefficient profiles for the three locations have been retrieved using Klett method of Lidar signal inversion. The analysis was also extended to study the variation of aerosol profiles surface temperature and during winter and summer seasons during January-April 2012. The atmospheric boundary layer height was also determined from various methods such as Gradient methods, Variance method and Wavelet covariance method. Cloud optical parameters such as Backscatter ratio, cloud optical depth and temporal variation of cloud moments are studied using suitable program. Corresponding author email: visuvichu0309@gmail.com

Plasma wave detector system for future mission to inner planets Vipin K. Yadav, R. Satheesh Thampi, Abhinaw Alok and Anil Bhardwaj Planetary Science Branch, Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum 695 022, Kerala, India

Plasma waves are observed in outer planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus, their satellites and comets. In the case of planets deprived of a global magnetic field, the scientific scenario becomes more interesting as the solar wind penetrate more deep into the atmosphere of some of the inner planets such as Venus and Mars. Planetary plasma waves play an important role in the dynamics of ionosphere by controlling the scattering and loss of energetic charged particles. The study of these waves provide valuable information on plasma 48

parameters, the solar wind-planet interaction, the energy and particle transport processes, the energy distribution in plasma, etc. A payload is being conceived for a future planetary mission to inner planets to detect and characterize the plasma waves in ionosphere. To achieve this objective, it is imperative to send a suit of instruments Plasma Wave Detector System (PWDS). This paper will present the design for a spherical Langmuir probe to characterize the plasma in Martian ionosphere (typical plasma density 103 106 cm-3, plasma temperature 0.1 eV) and capacitive probe to pick-up the plasma oscillations. An electric dipole antenna to measure the time varying wave electric field and a magnetic loop probe to measure the oscillating wave magnetic field are also proposed to be included in the PWDS. The measurement of all these wave parameters can establish the existence of electrostatic or electromagnetic wave in the planetary ionosphere. The laboratory set-up for PWDS including an ultra-high vacuum chamber (Base pressure = 1 10-7 mbar) and the plasma generation scheme in this vacuum chamber will also be discussed. Corresponding author email: vipin_ky@vssc.gov.in, vkyadavcsp@gmail.com

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