BepiColombo

Benkhoff, J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_5549-1

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…In the next years, ground based observations of the Na exosphere at different elongations and TAAs, filling the gap in TAA coverage are recommended. In addition, the next outcomes from the BepiColombo mission, launched in 2018, (Benkhoff et al, 2020) are truly desired, since it will observe the Na exosphere emission with a dedicated imager (MSASI on board of the Mio spacecraft), and at the same time the local exosphere density with the mass spectrometer SERENA-STROFIO (on board the MPO spacecraft). The possibility to have simultaneous measurements of dust distribution, of precipitating ions and magnetic field configuration, coupled with surface compositional maps, will provide information on possible drivers of the Na release and, hopefully, solve the open issues of exospheric generation and dynamics (Milillo et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exospheric Na distributions along the Mercury orbit with the THEMIS telescope

Milillo¹,

Mangano²,

Massetti³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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<p>The variability of Na exosphere of Mercury shows time scales from less than one hour to seasonal variations. While the faster variations, accounting of about 10-20% of fluctuations are probably linked to the planet response to solar wind and IMF variability, the seasonal variations (up to about 80%) should be explained by a complex mechanisms involving different surface release processes, loss, source and migrations of the exospheric Na atoms. Eventually, a Na annual cycle can be identified. In the past, integrated disk emission from ground-based observations and equatorial density from MESSENGER have been analysed. In this study, for a better investigation of the exospheric Na features, we have studied the local time and latitudinal distributions of the exospheric Na column density as a function of the True Anomaly Angle (TAA) of Mercury by means of the extended dataset of images, collected from 2009 to 2013, by the THEMIS solar telescope. In particular, THEMIS images, in agreement with previous results, registered a strong general increase at aphelion and a dawn ward emission predominance with respect to dusk ward and subsolar region between 90&#176; and 150&#176; TAA. We find a predominance of subsolar column density along the rest of the Mercury orbit. Also an unexpected relation between Northward or Southward peak emission and both TAA and local time is evidenced by our analysis requiring further investigations. Possible relationship with distance from the dust disk or IMF polarity is being considering.</p>

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%