Other
Scientific paper
Sep 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.5705p&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #57.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.588
Other
Scientific paper
We examined the variation of average sodium emission from Mercury with true anomaly angle, using a data set collected from 1997 to 2003. To see how the average sodium content of the exosphere varied, we normalized all of the average sodium emissions to a constant true anomaly angle. The normalized emission should be proportional to the average sodium density of the exosphere, assuming no secondary effects of radiation acceleration. When we plotted the normalized emission against solar radiation acceleration, there was a trend to lower values with increasing radiation acceleration, but with a very considerable scatter of the data. We found that the scatter was not random, but the result of a systematic variation, such that the normalized emission at a particular value of radiation acceleration took one or the other of two values, depending on the value of the true anomaly angle. We propose that this was the result of solar radiation acceleration changing the velocity of the sodium atoms, and consequently changing the solar continuum seen by the atoms. There is a positive feedback loop in the "out” leg of the orbit, such that radiation acceleration increases the emission intensity, and a negative feedback loop in the "in” leg of the orbit, such radiation acceleration decreases the emission intensity. We developed a simplified model for this effect, and used it to fit the normalized emission data, and to correct the normalized emission data. The corrected emissions showed much less scatter. There appeared to be a general trend to lower values from minimum to maximum radiation acceleration, with most of the change occurring near minimum and maximum radiation acceleration. The effect of radiation acceleration on sodium emission intensity should be taken into account if column densities are calculated from emission intensities.
Killen Rosemary
Morgan Th.
Potter Andrew E.
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