ON THE SCHUMANN RESONANCES ON MARS

A conductive ionosphere and a totally non-conductive layer of the atmosphere close to the surface of the planet form a quasispherical concentric resonator. This provides in principle for the possibility of the existence of global resonances of an electromagnetic field generated by thunderstorm activity or by hydromagnetic waves excited in an upper ionosphere and transformed into ordinary electromagnetic waves while penetrating the resonator. We have obtained an estimate of resonance frequencies of a Martian resonator: f1 approximately 13-14 Hz, f2 approximately 24-26 Hz, f3 approximately 35-38 Hz, etc. for two essentially different models of electron density distribution in the low ionosphere of Mars. The corresponding estimated quality values are low: Q(n) approximately 2-4. A relatively wide range of the quality variation depending on a model of averaged altitudinal electron density distribution in the low ionosphere of Mars yields the criterion for an adequate model.