Non-migrating tides in the Martian thermosphere

Previous studies have identified longitudinal structures associated with non-migrating tides in observations of the upper neutral atmosphere of Mars. MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrometer (IUVS) observations of the upper atmosphere reveal variations in density with longitude at altitudes of 130 – 200 km, and can be used to identify non-migrating tides. These observations cover higher latitudes and allow for studying the local time variations of tides. The analysis presented here shows that the longitudinal structure attributed to non-migrating tides is dominated by wavenumber 2 and wavenumber 3 harmonics during the periods studied. Comparison with the Neutral Ion and Gas Mass spectrometer (NGIMS) shows a good agreement in wave amplitudes observed for the first two cases studied. The temperatures and 𝑂/𝐶𝑂# ratios from the IUVS L2 data files revealed an anti-correlation with the densities which confirms the theoretical interpretation from the linear wave theory.