1,2,3,1,- 1Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), University of Colorado Boulder, United States of America (robin.ramstad@lasp.colorado.edu)
- 2Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, CA
- 3Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden
- 4Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, IA
- 5NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Mars was impacted by a series of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections (ICMEs) during a period of intense solar activity in May 2024. A particularly strong ICME arrived on May 17, and its impact was observed by plasma and fields instruments on the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) and Mars Express (MEX) orbiters. At this time, MEX was well-positioned to observe the upstream solar wind, while MAVEN's orbit had fortuitously precessed to cover the deep induced magnetotail, providing an unusually clear-cut view of escaping atmospheric plasma and the effects of the ICME impact. We compare MAVEN and MEX measurements of solar wind and escaping ions before, during, and after the May 17 ICME impact to investigate how the evolution of the upstream solar wind properties affected the acceleration and resulting fluxes of escaping atmospheric ions. Our analysis of this event reveals non-linear time-dependent effects of the solar wind properties on the ion escape process.
How to cite: Ramstad, R., Hanley, K. G., Holmström, M., Halekas, J., Espley, J., Brain, D., and Curry, S.: The Evolving State of the Ion Escape Process During the May 17, 2024 ICME Impact on Mars, Europlanet Science Congress 2026, The Hague, The Netherlands, 7–11 Sep 2026, EPSC2026-1232, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2026-1232, 2026.
