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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:
Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG); EXPRO; French Space Agency (CNES); Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF); Italian Space Agency (ASI); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Swedish National Space Agency; USDOE; University of Bern
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-09CH11466
OSTI ID:
1905786
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 13; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (22)

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Investigating Mercury’s Environment with the Two-Spacecraft BepiColombo Mission journal July 2020
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BepiColombo Science Investigations During Cruise and Flybys at the Earth, Venus and Mercury journal February 2021
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An Eastward Current Encircling Mercury journal May 2022
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Observational evidence of ring current in the magnetosphere of Mercury journal February 2022
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Ultra-low-frequency waves in the ion foreshock of Mercury: a global hybrid modelling study journal November 2019
Mercury's Magnetosphere After MESSENGER's First Flyby journal July 2008
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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
inner planets
magnetospheric physics