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Updated: Mar 7, 2026

Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths
Published on: July 1, 2019
Martian ionospheric response during the may 2024 solar superstorm
Jacob Parrott1, Beatriz Sánchez-Cano2, Håkan Svedhem3
1Imperial College London, London, UK. Jacob.parrott@esa.int.
None:
Solar energetic events can have considerable effects on planetary ionospheres. However, the erratic nature of these solar energetic events make observations difficult. Here we show a mutual radio occultation observation, which serendipitously occurred just 10 minutes after a large solar flare impacted Mars. This resulted in the largest lower ionospheric layer ever recorded, where it was 278% its typical size. We used in-situ soft x-ray irradiance measurements to show a threefold increase in flux. This infers a different relation of soft X-ray to this layer's density than previously thought, with variations depending on the amount of spectrum 'hardening' leading to the increase of ionisation from secondaries.
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