10295(  1) - 04/02/04 11:15  - [  1]

    PROPOSAL FOR HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS   ST ScI Use Only
                                                       ID:      10295
                                                       Version: 1
                                                       Check-in Date: 02-Apr-2004
                                                                      11:15:33

1.Proposal Title:
The Escape of Oxygen from Mars
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2. Proposal For  3. Cycle  4. Parallel Pointing Tolerance
AR               13        <none>
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5. Investigators
                                                                                     Contact?
    PI: Dr. Jody K. Wilson                Boston University
   CoI: Prof. John T. Clarke              Boston University                             N
   CoI: Prof. Michael Mendillo            Boston University                             N
   CoI: Dr. Paul Withers                  Boston University                             N

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6. Abstract

This proposal is to perform detailed analysis of STIS observations of the upper
atmosphere of Mars, using an ionospheric model, general circulation model results
for the neutral atmosphere, and various recent spacecraft observations of Mars. The
end goal is to better understand the escape of oxygen, and by extension water, from
Mars. The observations have yielded limb profiles of atomic hydrogen, atomic oxygen,
and carbon monoxide with 24 km vertical resolution and a field of view that is
thousands of km long. Most of the hydrogen and some of the oxygen atoms thus
detected are escaping from Mars. There are no other measurements of volatiles
escaping from Mars with nearly such high spatial resolution and large field of view.
The data analysis in the original observing proposal will derive spatially-averaged
escape rates of hydrogen and possibly oxygen at the time of the observations. This
archival research will go beyond that analysis by investigating how the escaping
species diffused through the upper atmosphere to reach the exobase and relating
these observations of current escape rate to the time history of escape. The escape
of water from Mars has had a major impact on its climate history, the understanding
of which is a major scientific goal of NASA's Office of Space Science.
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                                                10295(  1) - 04/02/04 11:15  - [  2]

            Summary Form for Proposal  10295

  Item                         Used in this proposal
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  Proposal Category            AR
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