Ground-based Observations of Mercury's Sodium Exosphere During the First MESSENGER Flyby

Details Ground-based Observations of Mercury's Sodium Exosphere During the First MESSENGER Flyby Ground-based Observations of Mercury's Sodium Exosphere During the First MESSENGER Flyby

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.5108m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #51.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.491

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The sodium exospheric emission at Mercury has been observed at the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope for more than two decades by A. Potter and collaborators. The distribution of sodium D2 emission was mapped using the McMath-Pierce solar telescope with the 5"x5" image slicer during the period January 10-18, 2008. Strong temporal and spatial variability of the sodium emission was observed on the dayside of the planet. On January 14, 2008, the Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer (UVVS) on MESSENGER's Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) sampled the sodium tail region, and captured a single measurement on the dayside of the planet.
These space-based measurements are put into the context of the week-long ground-based observations. There was little north-south asymmetry in the ground-based dayside sodium exosphere on January 14 but there was an indication of a strong asymmetry observed in the tail by MASCS. The Na tail is composed of the escaping component of the Na exosphere, accelerated by solar radiation pressure. The appearance of a north-south asymmetry in the Na tail indicates that the portion of exosphere escaping down the tail constitutes only a small fraction of the dayside exosphere. This also suggests an energetic source of some exospheric Na atoms and a possible solar wind-magnetosphere influence on the release mechanisms.
We acknowledge funding from NASA Planetary Astronomy Grant NNG05GF53G, "Observations of Mercury's Sodium Atmosphere" and from NASA MESSENGER Participating Scientist Grant NNX07AR78G "Mercury's Exosphere-Composition, Variability and Solar Wind Interaction."

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