New research has revealed that diurnal events are not always diffuse, featureless and evenly distributed, but are highly dynamic and variable, and contain minute structures.
Planetary scientist Mike Chavin of the University of Colorado Boulder said: “The observations of the EMM “Emirates Mars Exploration Mission” indicate that the auroras were so widespread and disorganized that the plasma environment around Mars must have been really turbulent, to the point that the solar wind was directly affecting the atmosphere upper atmosphere wherever we observe the auroral emission. By combining the EMM’s auroral observations with MAVEN’s measurements of the auroral plasma environment, we can confirm this hypothesis and determine that what we’re seeing was essentially a map of where the solar wind rains down on the planet.”
Proton auroras also form when positively charged protons in the solar wind collide with Mars’ hydrogen shell and ionize, stealing electrons from hydrogen atoms to become neutral.
This charge exchange allows neutral particles to bypass the shock of the magnetic field around Mars, raining into the upper atmosphere and emitting ultraviolet light.
It was believed that this process reliably produced a uniform auroral emission over the course of Martian days. New notes show otherwise.