Estimations of Ion Escape from Mars

We estimate ion escape from Mars by combining observations and models. Assuming that upstream solar wind conditions are known, a computer model of the interaction between the solar wind and the planet is executed for different ionospheric ion production rates. This results in different amounts of mass loading of the solar wind. Then we obtain the ion escape rate from the model run that best fit observations of the bow shock location. This method enables studies of how escape depend on different parameters, and also escape rates during extreme solar wind conditions, applicable to studies of escape in the early solar system, and at exoplanets. This approach also allows us to use data sets traditionally not used for ion escape estimates, such as magnetic field and electron observations. We can also estimate the escape rate from a very small set of observations, during every orbit of a spacecraft around a planet or during one flyby of a planet.