Atomic oxygen in the Martian thermosphere traced by the 130.4 and 135.6 nm emission lines with MAVEN/IUVS

We analyze limb observations of dayglow emissions from atomic oxygen in the upper Martian atmosphere. The data has been collected during the last almost four years by the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument on board the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission (MAVEN) spacecraft. Mean profiles for specific solar longitude, latitude and solar zenith angle ranges are created. We then use atmospheres from the Mars General Circulation models and in situ solar flux data from the MAVEN Extreme Ultraviolet Monitor (EUVM) to perform Monte Carlo and radiative transfer modeling for comparison with the observations. In order to match the results and to eventually retrieve oxygen densities, scaling factors are applied to the GCM atmospheric densities. We will present preliminary results of this analysis