The Space Environment of Mercury: Solar Wind and IMF Modeling of Upstream Conditions

Details The Space Environment of Mercury: Solar Wind and IMF Modeling of Upstream Conditions The Space Environment of Mercury: Solar Wind and IMF Modeling of Upstream Conditions

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.u12a..01b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #U12A-01

Physics

5405 Atmospheres (0343, 1060), 5430 Interiors (8147), 5440 Magnetic Fields And Magnetism, 5443 Magnetospheres (2756), 5470 Surface Materials And Properties

Scientific paper

In order to provide a broad knowledge of the solar wind properties and also some estimate of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near the planet Mercury, we have used an empirical modeling technique combined with a physics-based solar wind model. The empirical approach is the Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA) method that uses solar photospheric magnetic field observations (from Earth-based instruments) in order to estimate inner heliospheric boundary conditions out to about 21.5 solar radii. This information is then used as input to the global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model, ENLIL, which calculates solar wind velocity, density, temperature, and magnetic field strength throughout the inner heliosphere. WSA-ENLIL conditions were computed for the periods around MESSENGER's flybys of Mercury in January and October of this year. This information has been used in conjunction with MESSENGER Magnetometer measurements and available MESSENGER solar wind data to understand the context of the Mercury flyby results. The in situ spacecraft data can also be used iteratively to improve the model accuracy for inner heliospheric "space weather" purposes. More generally we show how we can estimate relatively continuously the solar wind properties near Mercury and at the cruise location of MESSENGER now, for future flybys, and toward the time of spacecraft insertion into orbit about Mercury in 2011.

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