We report the first radar soundings of the ionosphere of Mars with the MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) instrument on board the orbiting Mars Express spacecraft. Several types of ionospheric echoes are observed, ranging from vertical echoes caused by specular reflection from the horizontally stratified ionosphere to a wide variety of oblique and diffuse echoes. The oblique echoes are believed to arise mainly from ionospheric structures associated with the complex crustal magnetic fields of Mars. Echoes at the electron plasma frequency and the cyclotron period also provide measurements of the local electron density and magnetic field strength.

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[1] The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding aboard Mars Express has been in operation for over 2 years. Between 14 August 2005 and 31 July 2007, we obtain 34,492 ionospheric traces, of which 14,060 yield electron density profiles and 12,291 yield acceptable fits to the Chapman ionospheric model. These results are used to study the Martian ionosphere under changing conditions: the presence or absence of solar energetic particles, solar EUV flux, season, solar zenith angle, and latitude. The 2-year average subsolar maximum electron density n 0 is 1.62 Â 10 5 cm À3 , the average subsolar electron density altitude h 0 is 128.2 km, and the average neutral scale height H is 12.9 km. Solar energetic particle events are associated with a 6% increase in n 0 , a 3 km decrease in h 0 , and a 0-7 km decrease in H. The value of n 0 varies smoothly between 1.4 Â 10 5 and 1.8 Â 10 5 cm À3 , yielding d ln n 0 /d ln F10.7 = 0.30 ± 0.4; h 0 varies between 115 and 135 km, while H remains relatively constant with EUV flux and season, in contrast with previous work. The value of h 0 decreases toward the terminator at low latitude but increases poleward during summer; H varies from 11 km, for solar zenith angle less than 40°, to between 14 and 17 km near the terminator, depending on season. Near-peak temperatures vary between 220 K and 300 K, less variation than indicated by modeling, probably due to sampling near solar minimum.

In addition to remote radio sounding of the ionosphere of Mars, the MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding) instrument on the Mars Express spacecraft is also able to measure the in situ electron density from the excitation of local electron plasma oscillations. This paper presents an investigation of the electron density in the upper ionosphere of Mars based on the frequency of these oscillations. The advantage of this method is that electron densities can be measured at much higher altitudes than can be determined from remote radio soundings. Using this technique electron densities from 503 orbits have been analyzed over the period from 4 August 2005 to 31 July 2007 for altitudes ranging from about 275 to 1300 km. Although there is considerable variability from orbit to orbit, the median electron density at a given solar zenith angle (SZA) on the dayside of Mars decreases systematically with increasing altitude with a characteristic plasma scale height varying from about 80 to 145 km. At a fixed altitude, the electron density remains almost constant for SZAs less than about 80°. For SZAs greater than about 80° the electron density decreases rapidly with increasing SZA, approaching very low values on the nightside. Simulations performed using both magnetohydrodynamic and hybrid codes show that the nearly constant density at a given altitude is caused by the horizontal transport of plasma from the dayside toward the nightside due to interaction with the solar wind.

[1] We present results of a systematic study of electron densities in the dayside Martian ionosphere measured by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument on board the Mars Express spacecraft. There are two distinct regions controlled by different physical mechanisms. The first region is located at altitudes up to about 5 neutral scale heights above the altitude of peak electron density. Electron densities in this region are well described by the basic Chapman theory. The observed small deviations can be most probably explained by the neutral scale height and electron temperature increasing with altitude rather than being constant. The second region is located at altitudes higher than about 10 neutral scale heights above the altitude of peak electron density. It is controlled primarily by diffusion, and the observed electron densities decrease exponentially with increasing altitude. The corresponding diffusion scale height increases with increasing solar zenith angle, which can be probably explained by nearly horizontal magnetic fields in the ionosphere induced by interaction with the solar wind. The obtained dependencies can be used as a simple empirical model of the dayside Martian ionosphere.

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the specific detection of Helicobacter pylori was developed with a single primer pair derived from the nucleotide sequence of the urease A gene of H. pylori. We achieved specific amplification of a 411-bp DNA fragment in H. pylori. After 35 cycles of amplification, the product could be detected by agarose gel electrophoresis and contained conserved single HinfI and AluI restriction sites. This fragment was amplified in all 50 strains of H. pylori tested, but it was not detected in other bacterial species, showing the PCR assay to be 100% specific. PCR DNA amplification was able to detect as few as 10 H. pylori cells. PCR detected H. pylori in 15 of 23 clinical human gastric biopsy samples, whereas culturing and microscopy detected H. pylori in only 7 of the samples found to be positive by PCR. Additional primer pairs based on the urease genes enabled the detection of H. pylori in paraffin-embedded human gastric biopsy samples. The detection of H. pylori by PCR will enable both retrospective and prospective analyses of clinical samples, elucidating the role of this organism in gastroduodenal disease.

We here present a manual for the reduction of data from ionograms obtained from the Mars Express MARSIS Active Ionospheric Sounding topside radar sounder. Sample data are presented with the procedure for processing them explained as simply as possible. We discuss the uncertainties inherent in the measurements as well as systematic problems with the data. A sample code is included to facilitate the inversion process. We also include a comparison with an electron density profile taken from the Mars Express Radio Science occultation experiment, showing agreement between the two methods, although the data are not simultaneous.

[1] Radar soundings from the MARSIS instrument on board the Mars Express spacecraft have shown that distinct layers can occur in the topside ionosphere of Mars, well above the main photo-ionization layer. These layers appear as cusps, or sometimes steps, in plots of the time delay as a function of frequency. Usually only one topside layer is observed, typically at altitudes from 180 to 240 km. However, occasionally an additional layer occurs at even higher altitudes. The layers are transient features and are present about 60% of the time near the subsolar point, decreasing with increasing solar zenith angle to less than 5% at the terminator and the nightside. The transient nature of the layers suggests that they are produced by a dynamical process, most likely involving an interaction with the solar wind in the upper levels of the ionosphere. Citation: Kopf,