Modeling of Mercury's pick-up ion dynamics and its response to changes in IMF conditions

Details Modeling of Mercury's pick-up ion dynamics and its response to changes in IMF conditions Modeling of Mercury's pick-up ion dynamics and its response to changes in IMF conditions

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm34b..06b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM34B-06

Physics

[2740] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, [2756] Magnetospheric Physics / Planetary Magnetospheres, [2784] Magnetospheric Physics / Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, [6235] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mercury

Scientific paper

The three MESSENGER flybys of Mercury provided the opportunity to observe the magnetosphere of Mercury under three different interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions: stable northward IMF during the first flyby, stable southward IMF during the second flyby, and variable northward-southward IMF during the third flyby. Although many details of exosphere-magnetosphere coupling are still to be identified and understood, the MESSENGER observations have given clear indications that the neutral exosphere emissions respond to IMF changes. To investigate IMF-exosphere coupling, we upgraded our multi-fluid Hall magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model to track the dynamics of exospheric pick-up ions along with solar wind ions and electrons. This model was then used to provide a global view of the topology of the magnetosphere under the three IMF conditions encountered during the MESSENGER flybys, and to assess how pick-up ions adapt in each situation to changes in global magnetospheric structure. We show that each IMF-magnetosphere configuration not only affects exosphere interaction by constraining pick-ion dynamics but, more importantly, it determines the location and the amount of surface available for sputtering by solar wind ions.

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