Emission of non‐thermal microwave radiation by a Martian dust storm

Abstract

We report evidence for the emission of non‐thermal microwave radiation by a deep Martian dust storm. The observations were made using an innovative detector that can discriminate between radiation of thermal and non‐thermal origin by measuring the high order moments of its electric field strength. Measurements with this detector, installed in a 34 m radio telescope of the Deep Space Network (DSN), were made for about 5 hours a day over a dozen days between 22 May and 16 June 2006. Non‐thermal radiation was detected for a few hours only when a 35 km deep Martian dust storm was within the field of view of the radio telescope on 8 June 2006. The spectrum of the non‐thermal radiation has significant peaks around predicted values of the lowest three modes of the Martian Schumann Resonance (SR). The SR results from electromagnetic standing waves formed in the concentric spherical cavity between the Martian surface and its ionosphere and forced by large‐scale electric discharge. Thus, the non‐thermal radiation was probably caused by electric discharge in the Martian dust storm.