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Poster De Conférence Année : 2013

Impacts of Solar Wind Ions on Mercury from Global Hybrid Simulations

Résumé

In 1974 Mariner-10 discovered the hermean magnetosphere characterized by its smallness and the proximity of the bow shock and magnetopause to the surface of the planet. More than thirty years later MESSENGER orbital observations revealed an important quadrupolar component of the internal magnetic field of Mercury. It has long been suspected since Mariner-10 observations that solar wind ions could reach the surface of the planet and many numerical simulations and theoretical studies using various models have presented maps of precipitating proton fluxes. Attempts to refine these predictions of precipitating fluxes of solar wind ions are important as these precipitations create additional sources of exospheric populations and as their space-weathering effects modify the properties of the regolith. We run the global hybrid model used by Richer et al. (2012) which takes self-consistently into account the alpha particles of the solar wind to estimate fluxes of solar wind protons and alphas impacting the surface of Mercury under different IMF conditions. The internal source of the hermean magnetic field is axisymmetric and is the superposition of a dipole and a quadrupole consistent with MESSENGER observations as in Richer et al. 2012. These simulations, made with an improved spatial resolution, reveal important differences between proton and alpha fluxes mainly due to the different magnetic rigidities of these particles. Reference Richer, E., R. Modolo, G. M. Chanteur, S. Hess, and F. Leblanc (2012), A global hybrid model for Mercury's interaction with the solar wind: Case study of the dipole representation, J. Geophys. Res., 117, A10228, doi:10.1029/2012JA017898.
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Dates et versions

hal-02862105 , version 1 (09-06-2020)

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Gérard Chanteur, Ronan Modolo, Sebastien Hess, François Leblanc, Emilie Richer. Impacts of Solar Wind Ions on Mercury from Global Hybrid Simulations. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, Dec 2013, San Francisco, California, United States. 13, pp.P13A-1729, 2013. ⟨hal-02862105⟩
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