Mars ionosphere total electron content analysis from MARSIS subsurface data

We describe a method to estimate the total electron content (TEC) of the Mars ionosphere from the output parameters of an algorithm, called the Contrast Method (Picardi, G., Sorge, S. [2000]. Proc. SPIE. Eighth International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar, vol. 4084, pp. 624–629; Ilyushin, Ya.A., Kunitsyn, V.E. [2004]. J. Commun. Technol. Electron. 49, 154–165), which allows to correct the phase distortion of the echoes recorded by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) (Picardi, G. et al. [2005]. Science 310, 1925–1928) in its subsurface mode. Based on the TEC values evaluated during 6 years of MARSIS activity, corresponding to about 4600 orbits, in this paper we present a global map of the night side TEC variations, which correlates well with the magnetic field model derived from Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Magnetometer/Electron Reflectometer (MAG/ER) data. In particular, we demonstrate that regions of enhanced TEC preferentially correspond to areas where crustal magnetic field lines are quasi perpendicular to the martian surface; moreover, we demonstrate that, in regions where the magnetic field is predominantly nearly vertical, enhanced TEC values correlate with higher field intensities, while in regions where the magnetic field is predominantly nearly horizontal, such correlation is not observed. As already suggested in the past by other authors, we suggest that increased TEC values may be related to the precipitation of electrons from the martian magnetospheric tail along vertical crustal magnetic field lines.