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The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft while in orbit about Mercury observed highly localized, ~3‐s‐long reductions in the dayside magnetospheric magnetic field, with amplitudes up to 90% of the ambient intensity. These magnetic field depressions are termed cusp filaments because they were observed from just poleward of the magnetospheric cusp to midlatitudes, i.e., ~55° to 85°N. We analyzed 345 high‐ and low‐altitude cusp filaments identified from MESSENGER magnetic field data to determine their physical properties. Minimum variance analysis indicates that most filaments resemble cylindrical flux tubes within which the magnetic field intensity decreases toward its central axis. If the filaments move over the spacecraft at an estimated magnetospheric convection speed of ~35 km/s, then they have a typical diameter of ~105 km or ~7 gyroradii for 1 keV H+ ions in a 300 nT magnetic field. During these events, MESSENGER's Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer observed H+ ions with magnetosheath‐like energies. MESSENGER observations during the spacecraft's final low‐altitude campaign revealed that these cusp filaments likely extend down to Mercury's surface. We calculated an occurrence‐rate‐normalized integrated particle precipitation rate onto the surface from all filaments of (2.70 ± 0.09) × 1025 s−1. This precipitation rate is comparable to published estimates of the total precipitation rate in the larger‐scale cusp. Overall, the MESSENGER observations analyzed here suggest that cusp filaments are the magnetospheric extensions of the flux transfer events that form at the magnetopause as a result of localized magnetic reconnection.

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and other transient solar phenomena play important roles in magnetospheric and exospheric dynamics. Although a planet may interact only occasionally with the interplanetary consequences of these events, such transient phenomena can result in departures from the background solar wind that often involve more than an order of magnitude greater ram pressure and interplanetary electric field applied to the planetary magnetosphere. For Mercury, an order of magnitude greater ram pressure combined with high Alfvén speeds and reconnection rates can push the magnetopause essentially to the planet's surface, exposing the surface directly to the solar wind flow. In order to understand how the solar wind interacts with Mercury's magnetosphere and exosphere, previous studies have used the Wang‐Sheeley‐Arge (WSA)‐ENLIL solar wind modeling tool to calculate basic and composite solar wind parameters at Mercury's orbital location. This model forecasts only the background solar wind, however, and does not include major transient events. The Cone extension permits the inclusion of CMEs and related solar wind perturbations and thus enables characterization of the effects of strong solar wind disturbances on the Mercury system. The Cone extension is predicated on the assumption of constant angular and radial velocities of CMEs to integrate these phenomena into the WSA‐ENLIL coupled model. Comparisons of the model results with observations by the MESSENGER spacecraft indicate that the WSA‐ENLIL+Cone model more accurately forecasts total solar wind conditions at Mercury and has greater predictive power for magnetospheric and exospheric processes than the WSA‐ENLIL model alone.

Observations by the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft in Mercury's magnetotail demonstrate for the first time that Na+ ions exert a dynamic influence on Mercury's magnetospheric system. Na+ ions are shown to contribute up to ~30% of the ion thermal pressure required to achieve pressure balance in the premidnight plasma sheet. High concentrations of planetary ions should lead to Na+ dominance of the plasma mass density in these regions. On orbits with northward‐oriented interplanetary magnetic field and high (i.e., >1 cm−3) Na+ concentrations, MESSENGER has often recorded magnetic field fluctuations near the Na+ gyrofrequency associated with the Kelvin‐Helmholtz (K‐H) instability. These nightside K‐H vortices are characteristically different from those observed on Mercury's dayside that have a nearly constant wave frequency of ~0.025 Hz. Collectively, these observations suggest that large spatial gradients in the hot planetary ion population at Mercury may result in a transition from a fluid description to a kinetic description of vortex formation across the dusk terminator, providing the first set of truly multiscale observations of the K‐H instability at any of the diverse magnetospheric environments explored in the solar system.

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. MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (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.

We assess the statistical spatial distribution of plasma in Mercury’s magnetosphere from observations of magnetic pressure deficits and plasma characteristics by the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft. The statistical distributions of proton flux and pressure were derived from 10 months of Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) observations obtained during the orbital phase of the MESSENGER mission. The Magnetometer-derived pressure distributions compare favorably with those deduced from the FIPS observations at locations where depressions in the magnetic field associated with the presence of enhanced plasma pressures are discernible in the Magnetometer data. The magnitudes of the magnetic pressure deficit and the plasma pressure agree on average, although the two measures of plasma pressure may deviate for individual events by as much as a factor of ~3. The FIPS distributions provide better statistics in regions where the plasma is more tenuous and reveal an enhanced plasma population near the magnetopause flanks resulting from direct entry of magnetosheath plasma into the low-latitude boundary layer of the magnetosphere. The plasma observations also exhibit a pronounced north-south asymmetry on the nightside, with markedly lower fluxes at low altitudes in the northern hemisphere than at higher altitudes in the south on the same field line. This asymmetry is consistent with particle loss to the southern hemisphere surface during bounce motion in Mercury’s offset dipole magnetic field.

With data from the Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer sensor on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft, we demonstrate that the average distributions for both solar wind and planetary ions in Mercury’s pre-midnight plasma sheet are well-described by hot Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions. Temperatures and densities of the H+ ranges ~1–10 cm3 and ~5–30 MK, respectively, maintain thermal pressures of ~1 nPa. The dominant planetary ion, Na+ abundances with respect to H+ and exhibit mass-proportional ion temperatures, indicative of a reconnection-dominated heating in the magnetosphere. Conversely, planetary ion species are accelerated to similar average energies greater by a factor of ~1.5 than that of H+ acceleration in an electric potential, consistent with the presence of a strong centrifugal acceleration process in Mercury’s magnetosphere.

The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft has observed the northern magnetospheric cusp of Mercury regularly since the probe was inserted into orbit about the innermost planet in March 2011. Observations from the Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) made at altitudes 10 cm−3) that are exceeded only by those observed in the magnetosheath. These high plasma densities are also associated with strong diamagnetic depressions observed by MESSENGER's Magnetometer. Plasma in the cusp may originate from several sources: (1) Direct inflow from the magnetosheath, (2) locally produced planetary photoions and ions sputtered off the surface from solar wind impact and then accelerated upward, and (3) flow of magnetosheath and magnetospheric plasma accelerated from dayside reconnection X-lines. We surveyed 518 cusp passes by MESSENGER, focusing on the spatial distribution, energy spectra, and pitch-angle distributions of protons and Na+-group ions. Of those, we selected 77 cusp passes during which substantial Na+-group ion populations were present for a more detailed analysis. We find that Mercury's cusp is a highly dynamic region, both in spatial extent and plasma composition and energies. From the three-dimensional plasma distributions observed by FIPS, protons with mean energies of 1 keV were found flowing down into the cusp (i.e., source (1) above). The distribution of pitch angles of these protons showed a depletion in the direction away from the surface, indicating that ions within 40° of the magnetic field direction are in the loss cone, lost to the surface rather than being reflected by the magnetic field. In contrast, Na+-group ions show two distinct behaviors depending on their energy. Low-energy (100–300 eV) ions appear to be streaming out of the cusp, showing pitch-angle distributions with a strong component antiparallel to the magnetic field (away from the surface). These ions appear to have been generated in the cusp and accelerated locally (i.e., source (2) above). Higher-energy (≥1 keV) Na+-group ions in the cusp exhibit much larger perpendicular components in their energy distributions. During active times, as judged by frequent, large-amplitude magnetic field fluctuations, many more Na+-group ions are measured at latitudes south of the cusp. In several cases, these Na+-group ions in the dayside magnetosphere are flowing northward toward the cusp. The high mean energy, pitch-angle distributions, and large number of Na+-group ions on dayside magnetospheric field lines are inconsistent with direct transport into the cusp of sputtered ions from the surface or newly photoionized particles. Furthermore, the highest densities and mean energies often occur together with high-amplitude magnetic fluctuations, attributed to flux transfer events along the magnetopause. These results indicate that high-energy Na+-group ions in the cusp are likely formed by ionization of escaping neutral Na in the outer dayside magnetosphere and the magnetosheath followed by acceleration and transport into the cusp by reconnection at the subsolar magnetopause (i.e., source 3 above).

The structure of Mercury's dayside magnetosphere is investigated during three extreme solar wind dynamic pressure events. Two were the result of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and one was from a high‐speed stream (HSS). The inferred pressures for these events are ~ 45 to 65 nPa. The CME events produced thick, low‐β (where β is the ratio of plasma thermal to magnetic pressure) plasma depletion layers and high reconnection rates of 0.1–0.2, despite small magnetic shear angles across the magnetopause of only 27 to 60°. For one of the CME events, brief, ~ 1–2 s long diamagnetic decreases, which we term cusp plasma filaments, were observed within and adjacent to the cusp. These filaments may map magnetically to flux transfer events at the magnetopause. The HSS event produced a high‐β magnetosheath with no plasma depletion layer and large magnetic shear angles of 148 to 166°, but low reconnection rates of 0.03 to 0.1. These results confirm that magnetic reconnection at Mercury is very intense, and its rate is primarily controlled by plasma β in the adjacent magnetosheath. The distance to the subsolar magnetopause is reduced during these events from its mean of 1.45 Mercury radii (R M) from the planetary magnetic dipole to between 1.03 and 1.12 R M. The shielding provided by induction currents in Mercury's interior, which temporarily increase Mercury's magnetic moment, was negated by reconnection‐driven magnetic flux erosion.

During its interplanetary trajectory in 2007–2009, the MErcury Surface, Space ENvrionment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft passed through the gravitational focusing cone for interstellar helium multiple times at a heliocentric distance R ≈ 0.3 AU. Observations of He+ interstellar pickup ions made by the Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer sensor on MESSENGER during these transits provide a glimpse into the structure of newly formed inner heliospheric pickup-ion distributions. This close to the Sun, these ions are picked up in a nearly radial interplanetary magnetic field. Compared with the near-Earth environment, pickup ions observed near 0.3 AU will not have had sufficient time to be energized substantially. Such an environment results in a nearly pristine velocity distribution function that should depend only on pickup-ion injection velocities (related to the interstellar gas), pitch-angle scattering, and cooling processes. From measured energy-per-charge spectra obtained during multiple spacecraft observational geometries, we have deduced the phase-space density of He+ as a function of magnetic pitch angle. Our measurements are most consistent with a distribution that decreases nearly monotonically with increasing pitch angle, rather than the more commonly modeled isotropic or hemispherically symmetric forms. These results imply that pitch-angle scattering of He+ may not be instantaneous, as is often assumed, and instead may reflect the velocity distribution of initially injected particles. In a slow solar wind stream, we find a parallel-scattering mean free path of λ ∼ 0.1 AU and a He+ production rate of ∼0.05 m−3 s−1 within 0.3 AU.

Solar wind protons observed by the MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit about Mercury exhibit signatures of precipitation loss to Mercury’s surface. We apply proton-reflection magnetometry to sense Mercury’s surface magnetic field intensity in the planet’s northern and southern hemispheres. The results are consistent with a dipole field offset to the north and show that the technique may be used to resolve regional-scale fields at the surface. The proton loss cones indicate persistent ion precipitation to the surface in the northern magnetospheric cusp region and in the southern hemisphere at low nightside latitudes. The latter observation implies that most of the surface in Mercury’s southern hemisphere is continuously bombarded by plasma, in contrast with the premise that the global magnetic field largely protects the planetary surface from the solar wind.

We have analyzed measurements of planetary ions near Mercury made by the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) over the first three Mercury years of orbital observations (25 March 2011 through 31 December 2011). We determined the composition and spatial distributions of the most abundant species in the regions sampled by the MESSENGER spacecraft during that period. In particular, we here focus on altitude dependence and relative abundances of species in a variety of spatial domains. We used observed density as a proxy for ambient plasma density, because of limitations to the FIPS field of view. We find that the average observed density is 3.9 × 10-2 cm-3 for He2+, 3.4 × 10-4 cm-3 for He+, 8.0 × 10-4 cm-3 for O+-group ions, and 5.1 × 10-3 cm-3 for Na+-group ions. Na+-group ions are particularly enhanced over other planetary ions (He+ and O+ group) in the northern magnetospheric cusp (by a factor of ~2.0) and in the premidnight sector on the nightside (by a factor of ~1.6). Within 30 degrees of the equator, the average densities of all planetary ions are depressed at the subsolar point relative to the dawn and dusk terminators. The effect is largest for Na+-group ions, which are 49% lower in density at the subsolar point than at the terminators. This depression could be an effect of the FIPS energy threshold. The three planetary ion species considered show distinct dependences on altitude and local time. The Na+ group has the smallest e-folding height at all dayside local times, whereas He+ has the largest. At the subsolar point, the e-folding height for Na+-group ions is 590 km, and that for the O+ group and He+ is 1100 km. On the nightside and within 750 km of the geographic equator, Na+-group ions are enhanced in the premidnight sector. This enhancement is consistent with nonadiabatic motion and may be observational evidence that nonadiabatic effects are important in Mercury's magnetosphere.

[1] We here document with magnetic field observations a passage of the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft through Mercury's magnetosphere under conditions of a quasi-parallel bow shock, i.e., when the direction of the upstream interplanetary magnetic field was within 45° of the bow shock normal. The spacecraft's fast transition of the magnetosheath and the steady solar wind conditions during the period analyzed allow both spatial and temporal properties of the shock crossing to be investigated. The observations show that the shock reformation process can be nearly periodic under stable solar wind conditions. Throughout the 25-min-long observation period, the pulsation duration deviated by at most ~10% from the average 10 s period measured. This quasiperiodicity allows us to study all aspects of the shock reconfiguration, including ultra-low-frequency waves in the upstream region and large-amplitude magnetic structures observed in the vicinity of the magnetosheath-solar wind transition region and inside the magnetosheath. We also show that bow shock reformation can be a substantial source of wave activity in the magnetosphere, on this occasion having given rise to oscillations in the magnetic field with peak-to-peak amplitudes of 40–50 nT over large parts of the dayside magnetosphere. The clean and cyclic behavior observed throughout the magnetosphere, the magnetosheath, and the upstream region indicates that the subsolar region was primarily influenced by a cyclic reformation of the shock front, rather than by a spatial and temporal patchwork of short large-amplitude magnetic structures, as is generally the case at the terrestrial bow shock under quasi-parallel conditions.

On 18 March 2011, MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) became the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, providing a new opportunity to study the outer boundary of the planet's magnetosphere--the magnetopause. Here we characterize Mercury's magnetopause using measurements collected by MESSENGER's Magnetometer and Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer. Analysis of measurements from two of MESSENGER's "hot seasons," when the orbital periapsis is on Mercury's dayside and the magnetopause crossing takes place in the subsolar region, resulted in 43 events with well-determined boundary normals. The typical duration of a magnetopause traversal was ~5 s. The average normal magnetic field component was ~20 nT, and the dimensionless reconnection rate, i.e., the ratio of the normal magnetic field component to the total field magnitude just inside the magnetopause, was 0.15 plus or minus 0.02. This rate is a factor of ~3 larger than values found during the most extensive surveys at Earth. The ratio of the reconnection rate at Mercury to that of the Earth is comparable to the ratio of the solar wind Alfvén speeds at their respective orbits. We also find that the magnetopause reconnection rate at Mercury is independent of magnetic field shear angle, but it varies inversely with plasma b, the ratio of total thermal pressure to magnetic pressure, in the magnetosheath. These results suggest that reconnection at Mercury is not only more intense than at Earth but also that it occurs for nearly all orientations of the interplanetary magnetic field due to the low-b nature of the solar wind in the inner heliosphere.

Measurements from the Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) and Magnetometer (MAG) on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft during 40 orbits about Mercury are used to characterize the plasma depletion layer just exterior to the planet’s dayside magnetopause. A plasma depletion layer forms at Mercury as a result of piled-up magnetic flux that is draped around the magnetosphere. The low average upstream Alfvénic Mach number (MA ~3–5) in the solar wind at Mercury often results in large-scale plasma depletion in the magnetosheath between the subsolar magnetopause and the bow shock. Flux pileup is observed to occur downstream under both quasi-perpendicular and quasi-parallel shock geometries for all orientations of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Furthermore, little to no plasma depletion is seen during some periods with stable northward IMF. The consistently low value of plasma β, the ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure, at the magnetopause associated with the low average upstream MA is believed to be the cause for the high average reconnection rate at Mercury, reported to be nearly 3 times that observed at Earth. Finally, a characteristic depletion length outward from the subsolar magnetopause of ~300 km is found for Mercury. This value scales among planetary bodies as the average standoff distance of the magnetopause.

Several series of large dipolarization events are documented from magnetic field observations in Mercury's magnetotail made by the MESSENGER spacecraft. The dipolarizations are identified by a rapid (∼1 s) increase in the northward component of the magnetic field, followed by a slower return (∼10 s) to pre-onset values. The changes in field strength during an event frequently reach 40 nT or higher, equivalent to an increase in the total magnetic field magnitude by a factor of ∼4 or more. The presence of spatially constrained dipolarizations at Mercury provides a key to understanding the magnetic substorm process in a new parameter regime: the dipolarization timescale, which is shorter than at Earth, is suspected to lead to efficient non-adiabatic heating of the plasma sheet proton population, and the high recurrence rate of the structures is similar to that frequently observed for flux ropes and traveling compression regions in Mercury's magnetotail. The relatively short lifetime of the events is attributed to the lack of steady field-aligned current systems at Mercury.

The Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft has made the first in situ measurements of solar wind plasma in the inner heliosphere since the Helios 1 and 2 spacecraft in the 1980s. Although the core of the solar wind velocity distribution is obstructed by the spacecraft sunshade, a data analysis technique has been developed that recovers both bulk and thermal speeds to 10% accuracy and provides the first measurements of solar wind heavy ions (mass per charge >2 amu/e) at heliocentric distances within 0.5 AU. Solar wind alpha particles and heavy ions appear to have similar mean flow speeds at values greater than that of the protons by approximately 70% of the Alfvén speed. From an examination of the thermal properties of alpha particles and heavier solar wind ions, we find a ratio of the temperature of alpha particles to that of protons nearly twice that of previously reported Helios observations, though still within the limits of excessive heating of heavy ions observed spectroscopically close to the Sun. Furthermore, examination of typical magnetic power spectra at the orbits of MESSENGER and at 1 AU reveals the lack of a strong signature of local resonant ion heating, implying that a majority of heavy ion heating could occur close to the Sun. These results demonstrate that the solar wind at plus or minus 0.3 AU is a blend of the effects of wave–particle interactions occurring in both the solar corona and the heliosphere.

Analysis of MESSENGER magnetic field observations taken in the southern lobe of Mercury's magnetotail and the adjacent magnetosheath on 11 April 2011 indicates that a total of 163 flux transfer events (FTEs) occurred within a 25 min interval. Each FTE had a duration of ∼2-3 s and was separated in time from the next by ∼8-10 s. A range of values have been reported at Earth, with mean values near ∼1-2 min and ∼8 min, respectively. We term these intervals of quasiperiodic flux transfer events "FTE showers." The northward and sunward orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field during this shower strongly suggests that the FTEs observed during this event formed just tailward of Mercury's southern magnetic cusp. The point of origin for the shower was confirmed with the Cooling model of FTE motion. Modeling of the individual FTE-type flux ropes in the magnetosheath indicates that these flux ropes had elliptical cross sections, a mean semimajor axis of 0.15RM (where RM is Mercury's radius, or 2440 km), and a mean axial magnetic flux of 1.25 MWb. The lobe magnetic field was relatively constant until the onset of the FTE shower, but thereafter the field magnitude decreased steadily until the spacecraft crossed the magnetopause. This decrease in magnetic field intensity is frequently observed during FTE showers. Such a decrease may be due to the diamagnetism of the new magnetosheath plasma being injected into the tail by the FTEs.