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Mariner 10 Observations of Field-Aligned Currents at Mercury

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Mariner 10 Observations of Field-Aligned Currents at Mercury Planet. Space Sci., Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 133-141, 1997 Pergamon #I? 1997 Published bv Elsevier Science Ltd P&ted in Great Brit& All rights reserved 0032-0633/97 $17.00+0.00 PII: S0032-0633(96)00104-3 Mariner 10 observations of field-aligned currents at Mercury J. A. Slavin,’ J. C. J. Owen,’ J. E. P. Connerney’ and S. P. Christon ‘Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771, U.S.A. ‘Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, U.K. 3Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, U.S.A. Received 5 October 1995; revised 11 April 1996; accepted 13 April 1996 magnetic field at Mercury with a dipole moment of about 300nT R& (see review by Connerney and Ness (1988)). This magnetic field is sufficient to stand-off the average solar wind at an altitude of about 1 RM as depicted in Fig. 1 (see review by Russell et al. (1988)). For the purposes of comparison the diameter of the Earth is indicated at the bottom of the figure (i.e. 1 RE = 6380 km ; 1 RM = 2439 km). Whether or not the solar wind is ever able to compress and/or erode the dayside magnetosphere to the point where solar wind ions could directly impact the surface remains a topic of considerable controversy (Siscoe and Christopher, 1975 ; Slavin and Holzer, 1979 ; Hood and Schubert, 1979; Suess and Goldstein, 1979; Goldstein et al., 1981). Overall, the basic morphology of this small mag- netosphere appears quite similar to that of the Earth. The magnetic field investigation observed clear bow shock and magnetopause boundaries along with the lobes of the tail and the cross-tail current layer (Ness et al., 1974, 1975, 1976). The colatitude of the polar cap was estimated on the basis of these measurements to be about 25” as com- pared with a typical value of 16” at Earth. The plasma investigation was hampered by a deployment failure which kept the ion portion of the instrument from making any useful measurements. However, the electron portion of the instrument recorded the bow shock, the low density, cool plasma in the high latitude magnetosphere and the hotter electrons in the plasma sheet (Ogilvie et al., 1974, 1977). As expected from the large fraction of the mag- netosphere occupied by the planet, the cosmic ray experi- ment did not detect any trapped radiation belts at Mercury (Simpson et al., 1974). However, intense energetic particle events were observed in the tail during the first Mariner 10 encounter and, as will be discussed later, they have Introduction provided strong evidence for terrestrial-type substorm activity at this planet (Simpson et al., 1974; Siscoe et al., One of the major discoveries made by NASA’s early plan- 1975). etary missions was the existence of a modest intrinsic In considering Fig. 1, and the analysis to follow, it is useful to note that a scaling in which 1 RM at Mercury corresponds to -6 RE at Earth produces good cor- Correspondence to: J. A. Slavin respondence between the boundaries and magnetospheric 134 J. A. Slavin et al.: Field-aligned currents at Mercury BOW / MAGNETOSHEATH / SOLAR WIND / DIAMETER OF THE EARTH Fig. 1. A schematic view of the bow shock, magnetopause, and some field lines within the mag- netosphere of Mercury. The rendering is approximately to scale relative to the diameter of Mercury. For comparison, the diameter of the Earth is also indicated regions at these two planets (Ogilvie et al., 1977). Hence, axis completes the right-handed orthogonal system and the 2 R, distance from the center of Mercury to the sub- is positive toward the “north”. The first encounter was solar magnetopause maps to about 12& at the Earth planned to pass through the wake of the planet and survey which is, indeed, close to the average magnetopause nose its interaction with the solar wind. The closest approach distance. Similarly, the surface of Mercury would cor- to the surface of the planet during this passage was near respond roughly to geosynchronous distance within the 700 km and a peak magnetic field intensity of about 100 nT Earth’s magnetosphere and rule out the possibility of a was observed (Ness et al., 1974). The second encounter plasmasphere or trapped radiation belts even if the planet was targeted well upstream of the planet to return images possessed the sources and the rotation rate to create such in full sunlight and did not intersect the magnetosphere. a region (N.B. Mercury’s rotational and orbital periods The third encounter was intended to achieve higher lati- are 59 and 88 days, respectively). Finally, the observed tudes and lower altitudes in order to confirm the intrinsic near-tail diameter of 4-5 RM scales to about 24-30 RE nature of the magnetic field. This effort was successful which is close to the typical near-tail diameter at Earth. with a closest approach altitude of only 327 km and a In the sections to follow a concise review of the Mariner peak magnetic field intensity of about 400 nT (Ness et al., 10 observations will be presented as they apply to our 1976). primary purpose ; the search for FACs electrodynamically A radial projection of the two Mariner 10 trajectories linking Mercury’s magnetosphere to its weak ionosphere through the nightside magnetosphere onto the surface of or regolith. After presenting Mariner 10 magnetometer this planet are shown in Fig. 3 (adapted from Lepping et measurements which strongly suggest such FACs do al. (1979)). As discussed by Ness et al. (1974, 1975) and sometimes exist in the near-tail tail of Mercury, we will Ogilvie et al. (1974, 1977), the first encounter saw the discuss their implications for Mercury’s plasma environ- spacecraft traverse the near-tail starting in the south lobe ment and for the dynamics of its magnetosphere. of the tail, crossing the plasma sheet, and eventually exit- ing through the north lobe of the near-tail (see also Christon (1987)). The third encounter, in contrast, took Mariner 10 encounters the spacecraft through the northern high latitude mag- netosphere where it observed quiet magnetic fields and Following its launch on November 2, 1973 the Mariner the “horns” of a cooler, quiet-time plasma sheet (Ness et 10 spacecraft had three close encounters with the planet al., 1976; Ogilvie et al., 1977). Mercury on March 29, 1974, September 21, 1974, and Our re-examination of the Mariner 10 observations dur- March 16,1975. All three fly-bys occurred at a heliocentric ing the third encounter confirmed the quiescent condition distance of 0.46AU. This compares with perihelion and of Mercury’s magnetosphere during this interval reported aphelion distances for Mercury of 0.31 and 0.47AU, by the original investigators (see review by Russell et al. respectively. The spacecraft trajectories during the first (1988)). The interplanetary magnetic field was directed and third encounters, which took it through Mercury’s northward both before and after the encounter (Ness et small magnetosphere, are displayed in Fig. 2 in Mercury al., 1976). Hence, conditions were unfavorable for dayside centered solar ecliptic coordinates (adapted from Ness et reconnection and the input of large amounts of energy al. (1976)). In these “ME” coordinates the X,, axis is into the magnetosphere. No major energetic particle directed toward the Sun and the YNIEaxis is in the plane of events were detected (Eraker and Simpson, 1986) and the the ecliptic, perpendicular to X,, and directed oppositely passage through the horns of the plasma sheet revealed from the direction of planetary orbital motion. The Z,, relatively cool plasma electrons characteristic of the quiet- J. A. Slavin et al.: Field-aligned currents at Mercury 135 - MERCURY I 29 MARCH ‘74 -----MERCURY IU 16 MARCH’75 SCALED WITH My = 5.6 X lO22 I’ cm3 MAGNETOPAUSE (A) -3 BOW t I SHOCK (III) ‘ME Fig. 2. The Mariner 10 trajectories during the first (solid line) and third (dashed line) encounters are displayed relative to model magnetopause and bow shock surfaces (adapted from Ness et al. (1976)) time plasma sheet at the Earth (Ogilvie et al., 1977). and magnetospheric convection, in general, decrease gre- Despite a spacecraft trajectory which passed across the atly in intensity or even disappear during extended inter- polar cap and “aurora1 oval” regions where kilovolt elec- vals of northward IMF (e.g. Hoffman et al., 1988), it is tron precipitation produce auroras at the Earth (see Fig. not possible to infer whether the lack of FACs during the 3), we found no evidence for FAC signatures. Since FACs third encounter is associated with the northward IMF or TO SUN Fig. 3. Projections of the Mariner 10 first (left) and third (right) encounter trajectories upon the surface of the planet between the inbound and outbound magnetopause crossings. The time interval between solid dots is 2 min and the distance of the spacecraft from the center of the planet is indicated (adapted from Lepping et al. (1979)) 136 J. A. Slavin et al.: Field-aligned currents at Mercury MARCH 29, 1974 II 100 I I B Y 0-T I II- I II -100 I, I I I I I I DIPOLARIZATION UT Fig. 4. The Mariner 10 magnetic field observations (1.2 s averages) taken during the first encounter are displayed in Mercury centered solar ecliptic coordinates. Vertical dashed lines call out the inbound and outbound magnetopause crossings as well as the point of closest approach (CA). The clear signatures of a substorm dipolarization in the B, component and a field-aligned current (FAC) in the BYcomponent are also identified some other factor peculiar to Mercury.
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