Characteristics of the plasma distribution in Mercury's equatorial magnetosphere derived from MESSENGER Magnetometer observations

Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics

Volumn 117, Issue 12, 2012, Pages

  Korth, Haje ^a   Anderson, Brian J ^a   Johnson, Catherine L ^b,c   Winslow, Reka M ^c   Slavin, James A ^d   Purucker, Michael E ^e   Solomon, Sean C ^f,g   McNutt, Ralph L ^a  

^a JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY   (United States)

^b PLANETARY SCIENCE INSTITUTE   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

^d UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN   (United States)

^e NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER   (United States)

^f GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY   (United States)

^g International Research Institute for Climate and Society   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84870909522     PISSN: None     EISSN: 21699402     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1029/2012JA018052     Document Type: Article

References (35)

1. Alexeev, I. I., E. S. Belenkaya, S. Y. Bobrovnikov, J. A. Slavin, and M. Sarantos (2008), Paraboloid model of Mercury's magnetosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 113, A12210, doi:10.1029/2008JA013368.
2. Alexeev, I. I., et al. (2010), Mercury's magnetospheric magnetic field after the first two MESSENGER flybys, Icarus, 209, 23-39, doi:10.1016/j. icarus.2010.01.024.
3. Anderson, B. J., R. B. Decker, N. P. Paschalidis, and T. Sarris (1997), Onset of nonadiabatic particle motion in the near-Earth magnetotail, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 17,553-17,569, doi:10.1029/97JA00798. (Pubitemid 127694744)
4. Anderson, B. J., M. H. Acuña, D. A. Lohr, J. Scheifele, A. Raval, H. Korth, and J. A. Slavin (2007), The Magnetometer instrument on MESSENGER, Space Sci. Rev., 131, 417-450, doi:10.1007/s11214-007-9246-7. (Pubitemid 350231444)
5. Anderson, B. J., C. L. Johnson, H. Korth, M. E. Purucker, R. M. Winslow, J. A. Slavin, S. C. Solomon, R. L. McNutt Jr., J. M. Raines, and T. H. Zurbuchen (2011), The global magnetic field of Mercury from MESSENGER orbital observations, Science, 333, 1859-1862, doi:10.1126/science.1211001.
6. Anderson, B. J., C. L. Johnson, H. Korth, R. M. Winslow, M. E. Purucker, J. A. Slavin, S. C. Solomon, and R. L. McNutt Jr. (2012), Low-degree structure in Mercury's planetary magnetic field, J. Geophys. Res., 117, E00L12, doi:10.1029/2012JE004159.
7. Andrews, G. B., et al. (2007), The Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer instrument on the MESSENGER spacecraft, Space Sci. Rev., 131, 523-556, doi:10.1007/s11214-007-9272-5. (Pubitemid 50000245)
8. Benna, M., et al. (2010), Modeling of the magnetosphere of Mercury at the time of the first MESSENGER flyby, Icarus, 209, 3-10, doi:10.1016/j. icarus.2009.11.036.
9. Birmingham, T. J. (1984), Pitch angle diffusion in the Jovian magnetodisc, J. Geophys. Res., 89, 2699-2707, doi:10.1029/JA089iA05p02699.
10. Boardsen, S. A., B. J. Anderson, M. H. Acuña, J. A. Slavin, H. Korth, and S. C. Solomon (2009), Narrow-band ultra-low-frequency wave observations by MESSENGER during its January 2008 flyby through Mercury's magnetosphere, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L01104, doi:10.1029/2008GL036034.
11. Borovsky, J. E., M. F. Thomsen, and R. C. Elphic (1998), The driving of the plasma sheet by the solar wind, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 17,617-617,639.
12. Büchner, J., and L. M. Zelenyi (1989), Regular and chaotic charged-particle motion in magnetotail-like field reversals: 1. Basic theory of trapped motion, J. Geophys. Res., 94, 11,821-11,842.
13. Delcourt, D. C., S. Grimald, F. Leblanc, J. J. Berthelier, A. Millilo, A. Mura, S. Orsini, and T. E. Moore (2003), A quantitative model of the planetary Na+ contribution to Mercury's magnetosphere, Ann. Geophys., 21, 1723-1736, doi:10.5194/angeo-21-1723-2003. (Pubitemid 37196247)
14. Dungey, J. W. (1961), Interplanetary magnetic field and auroral zones, Phys. Rev. Lett., 6, 47-48, doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.6.47.
15. Friedel, R. H. W., H. Korth, M. G. Henderson, M. F. Thomsen, and J. D. Scudder (2001), Plasma sheet access to the inner magnetosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 5845-5858, doi:10.1029/2000JA003011.
16. Hughes, W. J. (1996), The magnetopause, magnetotail, and magnetic recon-nection, in Introduction to Space Physics, edited by M. G. Kivelson and C. T. Russell, pp. 227-287, Cambridge Univ. Press, New York.
17. Hundhausen, A. J. (1996), The solar wind, in Introduction to Space Physics, edited by M. G. Kivelson and C. T. Russell, pp. 91-128, Cambridge Univ. Press, New York.
18. Johnson, C. L., et al. (2012), MESSENGER observations of Mercury's magnetic field structure, J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2012JE004217, in press.
19. Korth, H., M. F. Thomsen, J. E. Borovsky, and D. J. McComas (1999), Plasma sheet access to geosynchronous orbit, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 25,047-25,061, doi:10.1029/1999JA900292.
20. Korth, H., B. J. Anderson, M. H. Acuña, J. A. Slavin, N. A. Tsyganenko, S. C. Solomon, and R. L. McNutt Jr. (2004), Determination of the properties of Mercury's magnetic field by the MESSENGER mission, Planet. Space Sci., 52, 733-746, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2003.12.008.
21. Korth, H., B. J. Anderson, J. M. Raines, J. A. Slavin, T. H. Zurbuchen, C. L. Johnson, M. E. Purucker, R. M. Winslow, S. C. Solomon, and R.L. McNutt Jr. (2011), Plasma pressure in Mercury's equatorial magnetosphere derived from MESSENGER Magnetometer observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L22201, doi:10.1029/2011GL049451.
22. Milillo, A., et al. (2005), Surface-exosphere-magnetosphere system of Mercury, Space Sci. Rev., 117, 397-443, doi:10.1007/s11214-005-3593-z. (Pubitemid 41144618)
23. Mura, A., S. Orsini, A. Milillo, A. M. Di Lellis, and E. De Angelis (2006), Neutral atom imaging at Mercury, Planet. Space Sci., 54, 144-152, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2005.02.009. (Pubitemid 43152260)
24. Nagano, H. (1979), Effect of finite ion Larmor radius on the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of the magnetopause, Planet. Space Sci., 27, 881-884, doi:10.1016/0032-0633(79)90013-8.
25. Parker, E. N. (1958), Dynamics of the interplanetary gas and magnetic fields, Astrophys. J., 128, 664-676, doi:10.1086/146579.
26. Schriver, D., et al. (2011), Quasi-trapped ion and electron populations at Mercury, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L23103, doi:10.1029/2011GL049629.
27. Solomon, S. C., et al. (2001), The MESSENGER mission to Mercury: Scientific objectives and implementation, Planet. Space Sci., 49, 1445-1465, doi:10.1016/S0032-0633(01)00085-X. (Pubitemid 33079553)
28. Sundberg, T., S. A. Boardsen, J. A. Slavin, L. G. Blomberg, and H. Korth (2010), The Kelvin-Helmholtz instability at Mercury: An assessment, Planet. Space Sci., 58, 1434-1441, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2010.06.008.
29. Trávníek, P. M., P. Hellinger, and D. Schriver (2007), Structure of Mercury's magnetosphere for different pressure of the solar wind: Three dimensional hybrid simulations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L05104, doi:10.1029/2006GL028518. (Pubitemid 46864488)
30. Trávníek, P. M., P. Hellinger, D. Schriver, D. Heriík, J. A. Slavin, and B. J. Anderson (2009), Kinetic instabilities in Mercury's magnetosphere: Three-dimensional simulation results, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L07104, doi:10.1029/2008GL036630.
31. Trávníek, P. M., D. Schriver, P. Hellinger, D. Heriík, B. J. Anderson, M. Sarantos, and J. A. Slavin (2010), Mercury's magnetosphere-solar wind interaction for northward and southward interplanetary magnetic field: Hybrid simulation results, Icarus, 209, 11-22, doi:10.1016/j. icarus.2010.01.008.
32. Wang, C. P., L. R. Lyons, J. M. Weygand, T. Nagai, and R. W. McEntire (2006), Equatorial distributions of the plasma sheet ions, their electric and magnetic drifts, and magnetic fields under different interplanetary magnetic field Bz conditions, J. Geophys. Res., 111, A04215, doi:10.1029/2005JA011545.
33. Winslow, R. M., C. L. Johnson, B. J. Anderson, H. Korth, J. A. Slavin, M. E. Purucker, and S. C. Solomon (2012), Observations of Mercury's northern cusp region with MESSENGER's Magnetometer, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L08112, doi:10.1029/2012GL051472.
34. Yagi, M., K. Seki, Y. Matsumoto, D. C. Delcourt, and F. Leblanc (2010), Formation of a sodium ring in Mercury's magnetosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 115, A10253, doi:10.1029/2009JA015226.
35. Zurbuchen, T. H., et al. (2011), MESSENGER observations of the spatial distribution of planetary ions near Mercury, Science, 333, 1862-1865, doi:10.1126/science.1211302.