MESSENGER Observations of Extreme Loading and Unloading of Mercury's Magnetic Tail

0356503 - ASÚ 2011 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Slavin, J.A. - Andreson, B.J. - Baker, D. N. - Benna, M. - Boardsen, S.A. - Gloeckler, G. - Gold, R.E. - Ho, G.C. - Korth, H. - Krimigis, S.M. - McNutt, Jr., R.L. - Nittler, L.R. - Raines, J.M. - Sarantos, M. - Schriver, D. - Solomon, S.C. - Starr, R.D. - Trávníček, Pavel M. - Zurbuchen, T.H.
MESSENGER Observations of Extreme Loading and Unloading of Mercury's Magnetic Tail.
Science. Roč. 329, č. 5992 (2010), s. 665-668. ISSN 0036-8075. E-ISSN 1095-9203
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10030501
Keywords : solar-wind * magnetosphere * substorms
Subject RIV: BN - Astronomy, Celestial Mechanics, Astrophysics
Impact factor: 31.377, year: 2010

During MESSENGER's third flyby of Mercury, the magnetic field in the planet's magnetic tail increased by factors of 2 to 3.5 over intervals of 2 to 3 minutes. Magnetospheric substorms at Earth are powered by similar tail loading, but the amplitude is lower by a factor of similar to 10 and typical durations are similar to 1 hour. The extreme tail loading observed at Mercury implies that the relative intensity of substorms must be much larger than at Earth. The correspondence between the duration of tail field enhancements and the characteristic time for the Dungey cycle, which describes plasma circulation through Mercury's magnetosphere, suggests that such circulation determines the substorm time scale. A key aspect of tail unloading during terrestrial substorms is the acceleration of energetic charged particles, but no acceleration signatures were seen during the MESSENGER flyby
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0195007