Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p41a1597s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P41A-1597
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
[5405] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Atmospheres, [5421] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Interactions With Particles And Fields, [6235] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mercury
Scientific paper
The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft entered orbit about Mercury on March 18, 2011. Since then, the Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer (UVVS) channel of MESSENGER's Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer has been observing Mercury's exosphere nearly continuously. We present measurements with the UVVS of the sodium, calcium, and magnesium distributions that were obtained during multiple passes through the tail over a period of one month. Global maps of the exosphere were constructed daily from such measurements using a recently developed tomographic technique. During this period, Mercury moved from about 0.44 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 0.32 AU from the Sun. Hence, our reconstructions provide information about the three-dimensional structure of the exosphere, the source processes for these species, and their dependence on orbital distance during most of an inbound leg of Mercury's orbit. We find that the reconstructions are often poor when data from two successive orbits are added, suggesting that on some days the exosphere is variable on the timescale of a single MESSENGER orbit (~12 hours). The inferred distribution of Mg is uncertain either because of a low signal-to-noise ratio, or because the exosphere for this species may be more susceptible to magnetospheric variability than for Na and Ca.
Burger Matthew Howard
Killen Rosemary Margaret
McClintock William E.
Merkel Aimee W.
Sarantos Menelaos
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