Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Barth, Erika L.
• Farrell, William M.
• Rafkin, Scot C.R.

Titel

Electric field generation in martian dust devils

Ist Teil von

• Icarus (New York, N.Y. 1962), 2016-04, Vol.268, p.253-265

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• •We model the electric environment of martian dust devils.•E-field is a strong function of size and number of particles in the dust devil.•Modeled electric field values range from mV/m to kV/m.•With this code we can examine the dust devil 3-D electric field in a new way. Terrestrial dust devils are known to generate electric fields from the vertical separation of charged dust particles. The particles present within the dust devils on Mars may also be subject to similar charging processes and so likely contribute to electric field generation there as well. However, to date, no Mars in situ instrumentation has been deployed to measure electric field strength. In order to explore the electric environment of dust devils on Mars, the triboelectric dust charging physics from the Macroscopic Triboelectric Simulation (MTS) code has been coupled to the Mars Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (MRAMS). Using this model, we examine how macroscopic electric fields are generated within martian dust disturbances and attempt to quantify the time evolution of the electrodynamical system. Electric fields peak for several minutes within the dust devil simulations. The magnitude of the electric field is a strong function of the size of the particles present, the average charge on the particles and the number of particles lifted. Varying these parameters results in peak electric fields between tens of millivolts per meter and tens of kilovolts per meter.