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American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Research Letters, 22(42), p. 9666-9675, 2015

DOI: 10.1002/2015gl065805

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First observations of Mercury's plasma mantle by MESSENGER

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We present the first observations of Mercury's plasma mantle, a primary region for solar wind entry into the planetary magnetosphere, located in the high-latitude magnetotail. MESSENGER observations from two orbits on 10 November 2012 have been analyzed. The main plasma mantle features are (1) a steady decrease in proton density as MESSENGER moved deeper into the magnetotail; (2) frequent flux transfer events throughout the magnetosheath and into the magnetotail, suggesting that these events are the primary source for solar wind plasma injection; (3) a diamagnetic depression, due to the presence of plasma, as pressure balance is maintained; and (4) a clear proton velocity dispersion, resulting from lower-energy protons being transported deep into the magnetosphere as higher-energy protons escape downtail. From these velocity dispersions we infer cross-magnetosphere electric potentials of 23 kV and 29 kV, consistent with estimates determined from measurements of magnetopause reconnection rate and tail loading and unloading events.