MARTIAN MAGNETIC-FIELD

The magnetic field measurements of the Mars 2, 3 and 5 spacecraft have been interpreted by Dolginov and co-workers to be consistent with an intrinsic planetary magnetic moment of 2.5 × 1022 gauss cm3. They base this interpretation mainly on the apparent size of the obstacle responsible for deflecting the solar wind, the lack of dependence of the sign of the magnetic field in the wake region of the planet on the sign of the component of the interplanetary field radially out from the sun, and an apparent encounter of the Mars spacecraft with the planetary field. When examined in detail this evidence is very suspect. A detailed criticism of the arguments by Dolginov and co-workers for an intrinsic field has appeared elsewhere. Herein we summarize this criticism and present, in an appendix, a compendium of the Mars 3 and 5 magnetic field data transformed into a coordinate system in which the details of the interaction are more easily visualized. Many of these data have not been published in this form previously. © 1979.