Physics
Scientific paper
May 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agusm.u31a..02h&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2008, abstract #U31A-02
Physics
2756 Planetary Magnetospheres (5443, 5737, 6033), 5421 Interactions With Particles And Fields, 6235 Mercury, 7807 Charged Particle Motion And Acceleration
Scientific paper
Our present knowledge of Mercury's magnetosphere is derived from two nightside Mariner 10 flybys in 1974 and 1975 that established the presence of an intrinsic magnetic field and of some energetic and plasma electrons. Unfortunately not even the magnetic dipole term was well-resolved, and the fluxes and identity of energetic ions have been a subject of extensive discussion and varying interpretations. MESSENGER's 14 January 2008 encounter with Mercury has provided new observations of Mercury's small and highly variable magnetosphere. Immediately prior and following the encounter, the magnetometer onboard MESSENGER indicated a northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). During the inbound magnetsheath passage, several-minute episodes of southward IMF were also reported, as well as substantial fluxes of both heated solar wind and planetary ions. However, observations from the Energetic Particle Spectrometer (EPS), one of two sensors for the Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer (EPPS) instrument, showed that ions and electrons with energies greater than 30 keV s were absent from Mercury's magnetosphere during this encounter. Indications are that Mercury's magnetosphere is highly variable and the Mariner 10 flybys measurements of energetic electrons may not be representative of the energetic particle environment at Mercury at all levels of solar activity.
Acuña Mario Humberto
Anderson Bernard A.
Baker Daniel N.
Gloeckler George
Gold Robert E.
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