Physics
Scientific paper
May 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agusm.u24a..03k&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #U24A-03
Physics
0300 Atmospheric Composition And Structure, 0322 Constituent Sources And Sinks, 0328 Exosphere
Scientific paper
Observations of Mercury's exospheric emission were obtained with the Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer (UVVS) component of the Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spec-trometer (MASCS) instrument onboard the MESSENGER spacecraft during the first flyby of the planet on January 14, 2008. The UVVS observed H and Na in the tail region and Ca in the night-side/dawn exosphere. Although the sodium exosphere and tail have previously been observed with ground-based telescopes and are known to be asymmetric, this was the first observation of a hydrogen tail at Mercury, and the discovery of a pronounced north/south asymmetry in the hydrogen tail was surprising. The tail asymmetries may be linked to the dayside asymmetries previously seen in the sodium exosphere and are possibly related to a magnetospheric configuration that preferentially allowed solar wind plasma into the northern hemisphere during the flyby as inferred from MESSENGER Magnetometer data. The cause of the high-latitude enhancements in the sodium exosphere has been ascribed to solar wind ion-impact or surface compositional and physical dif-ferences. MASCS observations will be used to constrain exosphere models, including source and loss mechanisms for both volatiles and refractory elements. In situ observations of the surface and magnetospheric environment will be used along with the exosphere observations to deter-mine the causes of the exospheric variability, which may be of a complicated nature. Each of the observed species is potentially representative of a different source process and will provide unique clues to understanding the overall exospheric system.
Bradley Eric Todd
Izenberg Noam R.
Killen Rosemary Margaret
Kochte M. C.
Lankton Mark R.
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