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Title: Inner southern magnetosphere observation of Mercury via SERENA ion sensors in BepiColombo mission

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
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  1. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Roma (Italy)
  2. Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz (Austria)
  3. Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), Kiruna (Sweden)
  4. Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX (United States); Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  5. Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX (United States)
  6. Aalto Univ., Helsinki (Finland)
  7. Univ. of Bern (Switzerland)
  8. Italian Space Agency (ASI), Rome (Italy)
  9. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  10. Univ. of Toulouse (France)
  11. European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk (Netherlands)
  12. Sorbonne Univ., Paris (France)
  13. Wigner Research Center for Physics, Budapest (Hungary)
  14. Johns Hopkins Univ., Laurel, MD (United States)
  15. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  16. Space Technology Ireland, Ltd., Maynooth (Ireland)
  17. IKI Space Research Institute, Moscow (Russia)
  18. Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX (United States); Univ. of Texas at San Antonio, TX (United States)
  19. National and Kapodistrian Univ. of Athens (Greece); Hellenic Space Center, Athens (Greece)
  20. Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
  21. Umea Univ. (Sweden)
  22. Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen (Germany)
  23. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Trieste (Italy)
  24. OHB Italia SpA, Milan (Italy)
  25. AMDL Srl, Rome (Italy)
  26. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
  27. Slovak Academy of Sciences, Košice (Slovakia)
  28. Univ. d'Orleans (France)
  29. Aberystwyth University (United Kingdom)
  30. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)
  31. Aalto Univ., Helsinki (Finland); Finnish Meteorological Inst. (FMI), Helsinki (Finland)
  32. Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)
  33. Ecole Polytechnique, Paris (France)
  34. Finnish Meteorological Inst. (FMI), Helsinki (Finland)
  35. Univ. of Tokyo (Japan)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Mercury’s southern inner magnetosphere is an unexplored region as it was not observed by earlier space missions. In October 2021, BepiColombo mission has passed through this region during its first Mercury flyby. Here, we describe the observations of SERENA ion sensors nearby and inside Mercury’s magnetosphere. An intermittent high-energy signal, possibly due to an interplanetary magnetic flux rope, has been observed downstream Mercury, together with low energy solar wind. Low energy ions, possibly due to satellite outgassing, were detected outside the magnetosphere. The dayside magnetopause and bow-shock crossing were much closer to the planet than expected, signature of a highly eroded magnetosphere. Different ion populations have been observed inside the magnetosphere, like low latitude boundary layer at magnetopause inbound and partial ring current at dawn close to the planet. These observations are important for understanding the weak magnetosphere behavior so close to the Sun, revealing details never reached before.

Research Organization:
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; Italian Space Agency (ASI); Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF); EXPRO; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG); French Space Agency (CNES); Swedish National Space Agency; University of Bern
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-09CH11466; 2018-8-HH.0; C4000119196/16/ES/JD
OSTI ID:
1905786
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 13, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (22)

Mercury's magnetopause and bow shock from MESSENGER Magnetometer observations: MERCURY'S MAGNETOPAUSE AND BOW SHOCK journal May 2013
The Global Magnetic Field of Mercury from MESSENGER Orbital Observations journal September 2011
Quasi-trapped ion and electron populations at Mercury: QUASI-TRAPPED POPULATIONS AT MERCURY journal December 2011
Magnetic field of Mercury confirmed journal May 1975
Origin of Mercury’s double magnetopause: 3D hybrid simulation study with A.I.K.E.F. journal March 2012
Ultra-low-frequency waves in the ion foreshock of Mercury: a global hybrid modelling study journal November 2019
Investigating Mercury’s Environment with the Two-Spacecraft BepiColombo Mission journal July 2020
Mercury's Magnetosphere After MESSENGER's First Flyby journal July 2008
SERENA: Particle Instrument Suite for Determining the Sun-Mercury Interaction from BepiColombo journal January 2021
Distribution and compositional variations of plasma ions in Mercury's space environment: The first three Mercury years of MESSENGER observations: MERCURY ION COMPOSITION FROM MESSENGER journal April 2013
MESSENGER Mission Overview journal August 2007
Active tectonics of the east Alborz mountains, NE Iran: Rupture of the left-lateral Astaneh fault system during the great 856 A.D. Qumis earthquake journal December 2010
Observational evidence of ring current in the magnetosphere of Mercury journal February 2022
BepiColombo Science Investigations During Cruise and Flybys at the Earth, Venus and Mercury journal February 2021
MESSENGER Observations of Magnetic Reconnection in Mercury's Magnetosphere journal April 2009
The dayside magnetospheric boundary layer at Mercury journal December 2011
Plasma Sources in Planetary Magnetospheres: Mercury journal October 2015
The magnetospheric boundary layer: Site of plasma, momentum and energy transfer from the magnetosheath into the magnetosphere journal November 1976
An Eastward Current Encircling Mercury journal May 2022
BepiColombo - Mission Overview and Science Goals journal December 2021
Thruster Plumes: Sources for High Pressure and Contamination at the Payload Location journal January 2008
The Solar Orbiter mission: Science overview journal September 2020

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
inner planets
magnetospheric physics