AI and the World's Hard Problems · Astronomy & space · arXiv · 2026-10-23
Deep-Learning Identification and Global Characterization of Energetic O2+ Beams at Mars
Ions in the Martian ionosphere can be accelerated away from the planet by the solar wind, contributing to atmospheric escape. The authors trained a U-Net image segmentation model to find energetic O2+ beams in about a decade of MAVEN observations and analysed their global properties. The beams are widely distributed, strongly favour the +E hemisphere, and are mainly controlled by upstream solar wind conditions, pointing to the convective electric field as a major factor in their formation.