Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005agufmsh43a1160h&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2005, abstract #SH43A-1160
Physics
5400 Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets, 5405 Atmospheres (0343, 1060), 5470 Surface Materials And Properties
Scientific paper
The Mercury's Sodium Atmosphere Interferometer (MSASI) on BepiColombo will address a wealth of fundamental scientific questions pertaining to the Mercury's exosphere. Together, our measurement on the overall scale will provide ample new information on regolith-exosphere-magnetosphere coupling as well as new understanding of the dynamics governing the surface-bounded exosphere. Discoveries of Na, K and Ca from the ground-based observations clearly arises that the regolith of Mercury releases a fraction of its content to the atmosphere. Some processes are proposed up to now as release mechanisms, e.g. (1) Chemical sputtering, (2) Thermal desorption, (3) Photon-stimulated desorption, (4) Ion sputtering, and (5) Micro-meteoroid impact/vaporization. These processes are associated with different energies of ejection from regolith and behaviors in different regions of Mercury's surface. Therefore different types of population are born from the surface, depending on the process. The distribution of the neutral atmosphere is strongly affected by solar radiation. The shape and size of the exosphere could change depending on True anomaly angle (TAA). We can see the variability of the spatial distribution of the Mercury atmosphere using the Monte Carlo simulation. MSASI is a high-dispersion visible spectrometer working in the spectral range around sodium D2 emission (589nm) and devoted to the characterization of the Mercury_fs exosphere. A tandem Fabry-Perot etalon is used to achieve a compact design. A one degree-of-freedom scanning mirror is employed to allow obtaining full-disk image of the planet and selected region of interest, e.g. polar regions, Caloris Basin, and magnetosphere. In this paper, we will show the feasibility of identifying a process, which is responsible for sodium exosphere of Mercury. We also report the current status of our hardware development.
Hikosaka K.
Kameda Shingo
Nozawa Hiraku
Yamazaki Akihiro
Yoshikawa Ichiro
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