 |
| Titel |
Sodium ions circulation in the magnetosphere of Mercury and its contribution to ion sputtering. |
| VerfasserIn |
Alessandro Mura, Peter Wurz, Helmut Lammer, Stefano Orsini, Anna Milillo, Stefano Massetti, Valeria Mangano, Herbert I. M. Lichtenegger, Maxim Khodachenko |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2014
|
| Medientyp |
Artikel
|
| Sprache |
Englisch
|
| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 16 (2014) |
| Datensatznummer |
250099543
|
| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2014-15337.pdf |
|
|
|
|
|
| Zusammenfassung |
| Abstract. Here we present the result of our model for the circulation
of Sodium ions in the magnetosphere of Mercury. Magnetospheric Na+
ions are the results of the photon ionization of the neutral Na
exosphere. We first use a Na exospheric model as a source; then we
simulate the Na+ circulation using a single particle Montecarlo model,
which takes into account the latest findings from the MESSENGER
mission. The Na+ densities and fluxes are computed inside the whole
magnetosphere. A subset of the simulated data, corresponding to the
MESSENGER orbit, is compared against the data from MESSENGER FIPS
instrument, showing a good agreement. Then, the validated Na+
circulation model is used to estimate the Na+ flux onto the surface of
Mercury. The precipitation of heavy planetary ions, in fact, is
believed to give a substantial contribution to the sputtering process
on the surface of Mercury (Delcourt et al., 2003), comparable with
that from the precipitation of solar wind plasma. In fact, Na+ ions
have a larger sputtering yield compared with that of protons. The
results, in terms of sputtered fluxes and generated neutral exosphere,
are presented. |
|
|
|
|
|
|