MHD modeling of the interaction of the magnetosphere of Mercury with the solar wind during the MESSENGER flybys

Details MHD modeling of the interaction of the magnetosphere of Mercury with the solar wind during the MESSENGER flybys MHD modeling of the interaction of the magnetosphere of Mercury with the solar wind during the MESSENGER flybys

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p24a..08b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P24A-08

Physics

[2740] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, [2753] Magnetospheric Physics / Numerical Modeling, [2784] Magnetospheric Physics / Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, [6235] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mercury

Scientific paper

The MESSENGER spacecraft flybys of Mercury on 14 January 2008 and 6 October 2008 provided a special opportunity to study the magnetosphere of the innermost planet under different solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field conditions. The model presented in this paper is based on the solution of the three-dimensional, multi-fluid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations for solar wind protons and electrons in the absence of mass loading. In this study we provide new estimates of Mercury’s intrinsic magnetic field and the solar wind conditions that prevailed at the time of these two flybys. We show that the location of the boundary layers and the strength of the magnetic field along the spacecraft trajectory are consistent with a planetary magnetic dipole having a magnitude of 210 RM3 nT and an offset of 0.18 RM to the north of the equator, where RM is Mercury’s radius. A comparison between the magnetospheric structures generated under northward and southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) orientations confirms that dayside and nightside reconnections are efficient drivers of energy transfer between the solar wind and the magnetosphere. Analysis of the plasma flow reveals the existence of a stable drift belt around the planet; such a belt can account for the locations of diamagnetic decreases observed during both flybys by the MESSENGER Magnetometer. Moreover, we deduce that the variability in the ion impact rate at the cusps as a result of the very different magnetosphere configurations can provide a possible explanation for the variability in the north-south asymmetry of exospheric sodium observed in Mercury’s neutral tail.

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