SMuK 2023 – scientific programme
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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik
EP 9: Poster
EP 9.15: Poster
Wednesday, March 22, 2023, 17:30–19:00, HSZ OG1
Neutral Current Sheet Displacement in Reaction to the Radial Interplanetary Magnetic Field at Mercury: Statistical Results from MESSENGER Data. — •Daniel Heyner1, Kristin Pump1, David Hercik2, Willi Exner3, Yasuhito Narita4, Ferdinand Plaschke1, Daniel Schmid4, Jim Slavin5, and Martin Volwerk4 — 1TU Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany — 2Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Prague, Czech Republic — 3ESA, Noordwijk, Netherlands — 4IWF, Graz, Austria — 5University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
Mercury possesses a small magnetosphere and on the nightside, a neutral current sheet elongates the magnetic field lines. From hybrid simulations it is known that this current sheet reacts to changes in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The radial IMF at Mercury facilitates magnetopause reconnection in high latitudes which decreases the magnetic pressure in one of the magnetospheric lobes depending on the radial IMF polarity. This produces a north-south shift of the neutral sheet. We present statistical results from in-situ MESSENGER magnetic field data analysis on the IMF direction as well as the neutral sheet displacement. MESSENGER was a single probe in orbit around Mercury and it was blind to the IMF after having entered the bow shock. We need to estimate the current IMF radial polarity for the time with the probe inside the magnetosphere. We evaluate different interpolation methods with an adapted bootstrap analysis method on solar wind data at Mercury. The analysis results on the neutral sheet displacement is compared to hybrid simulations done in the past.