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Plasma Dynamics in Mercury’s Magnetosphere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2016

Wing-Huen Ip
Wing-Huen Ip*
Affiliation:
Institutes of Astronomy and Space Science, National Central UniversityChung-Li, Taiwan 32054

Abstract

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Mercury is in all sense of the words still Terra Incognito, its magnetosphere is hence little known. The only source of knowledge came from the in-situ measurements by the Mariner 10 close encounters in 1974. This has been complemented since by ground-based observations of the atomic sodium and potassium emissions in the vicinity of the planetary disk. This series of optical observations has produced intriguing evidence of magnetospheric and/or solar wind effects on the surface-plasma interaction processes. In this review we will describe the current theories of the corresponding space weather effects.

Type
I. Joint Discussions
Information
Highlights of Astronomy , Volume 13 , 2005 , pp. 67 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Pacific 2005

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