Groundbreaking research reveals the first evidence that high-energy particle bursts from the sun significantly warm Mars’ lower atmosphere during massive dust storms, highlighting an unexpected connection between space weather and Mars’ climate.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured these images showing Mars before (left) and during (right) a dust storm in June 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.
“Solar energetic particle (SEP) events occur when highly energetic charged particles are expelled into space by solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs),” explained astronomer Lana Williams from Lancaster University and her colleagues.
“Mars is particularly vulnerable to these particles due to its thin atmosphere and lack of a strong global magnetic field, unlike Earth.”
“While previous studies indicated that SEPs could influence Mars’ upper atmosphere — causing ionization, auroral activities, and disruption of radio communications — their effects on the lower atmosphere, where weather phenomena occur, remain largely unexplored.”
The researchers noted, “Dust storms naturally heat parts of Mars’ atmosphere by absorbing sunlight. However, we discovered an unusual heating pattern during this complex event that cannot be attributed solely to the storm.”
In this study, Williams and her team analyzed five SEP events to explore whether persistent SEPs could elevate temperatures in Mars’ lower atmosphere.
While four of the SEP events showed no significant effects, the fifth event in June 2018 coincided with the growth of a global dust storm that also marked the end of NASA’s Opportunity spacecraft.
Notably, during this global storm, evidence of low-level atmospheric heating was recorded.
“We anticipated some temperature variation in Mars’ lower atmosphere due to these high-energy particles; however, we only found clear heating during the global sandstorm,” Williams stated.
For this investigation, astronomers utilized data from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft alongside ESA’s Trace Gas Explorer.
The team compared their findings against expected temperature profiles from the Mars climate database, observing conditions before, during, and after the five long-term SEP events.
Interestingly, “Sandstorms were not part of our original research focus, making their simultaneous occurrence with the heating results quite unexpected,” Williams remarked.
This implies that Mars’ atmosphere and weather might be influenced by a combination of factors, rather than each heat source acting in isolation.
The researchers will present their findings at the upcoming National Astronomical Conference 2026 (NAM2026) in Birmingham, England.
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Lana Williams and colleagues. Do solar particle events affect the warming of Mars’ atmosphere? NAM2026
Source: www.sci.news
