Heavy Ion Transport in Mercury's Magnetosphere during the MESSENGER Flyby

Details Heavy Ion Transport in Mercury's Magnetosphere during the MESSENGER Flyby Heavy Ion Transport in Mercury's Magnetosphere during the MESSENGER Flyby

May 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agusm.u24a..05s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #U24A-05

Physics

5405 Atmospheres (0343, 1060), 5440 Magnetic Fields And Magnetism, 5443 Magnetospheres (2756)

Scientific paper

Heavy ions including sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+) are known to populate Mercury's magnetosphere and were observed in situ during the first MESSENGER flyby on January 14, 2008. A study has been undertaken to examine the transport, distribution, and energization of these heavy ions during the solar wind conditions corresponding to those found during the MESSENGER flyby. Three-dimensional global hybrid simulations of Mercury's magnetosphere, which provide the most realistic self-consistent electric and magnetic field configuration at the time of the flyby, are used to trace heavy-ion particle trajectories throughout the system. Because electrons are included only as a massless fluid in the hybrid simulations, electron transport can be examined as well using this technique. To examine solar-wind sputtering as a source for ion ejection from the planet, heavy ions are launched outward from regions near the planet where hybrid simulations show strong particle precipitation, and their trajectories are followed until they either hit the planet or are picked up by the solar wind and lost downstream. The heavy ions can be transported throughout the magnetosphere of Mercury and become accelerated by non-adiabatic processes in the magnetotail current sheet, as well as near reconnection regions. The simulated heavy-ion distribution and their energy profile in Mercury's magnetosphere provide a basis for comparison with MESSENGER flyby data

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