Mars - Has nitrogen escaped.

Abstract

Discussion of the implications of low concentration of Martian nitrogen as reflected in the apparent failure of the ultraviolet spectrometers on Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 to detect molecular nitrogen. If eddy mixing is about as effective on Mars as it is on earth, then there seems to be less nitrogen present on Mars than would be expected if terrestrial-type outgassing were operating. It is shown that, in this case, a nonthermal escape mechanism involving the predissociation of exospheric nitrogen can be used to explain the low nitrogen concentration.