Toward an Improved Understanding of the Magnetic Field of Mercury: Results Using Data from the First MESSENGER Flyby

Details Toward an Improved Understanding of the Magnetic Field of Mercury: Results Using Data from the First MESSENGER Flyby Toward an Improved Understanding of the Magnetic Field of Mercury: Results Using Data from the First MESSENGER Flyby

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008epsc.conf...90k&link_type=abstract

European Planetary Science Congress 2008, Proceedings of the conference held 21-25 September, 2008 in Münster, Germany. Online a

Computer Science

Scientific paper

Introduction The MESSENGER Magnetometer [1] operated during the 14 January 2008 flyby of Mercury (M1) and returned the first data on Mercury's magnetic field since the Mariner 10 flybys in 1974 and 1975 [2,3]. MESSENGER's closest approach (CA) occurred at 19:04:42 UTC. The Magnetometer acquired data at 20 vector samples/s during 12 hours centered on CA, providing high-resolution (0.047 nT) observations of the field, magnetospheric boundaries (bow shock and magnetopause), and electromagnetic waves having frequencies up to 10 Hz. The M1 encounter with Mercury provided observations near the planet's equatorial plane during quieter magnetospheric conditions than during the Mariner 10 flyby I (M10-I), which had a comparable geometry. The new MESSENGER data complement the observations from Mariner 10 flyby III (M10-III) obtained on a transit over high northern latitudes. We combine data from all three flybys to: (1) assess whether there has been a change in the planetary magnetic moment since 1974; (2) determine a best estimate for the planetary dipole; and (3) assess the presence of higher-order terms in the intrinsic field.

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