MESSENGER observations of large flux transfer events at Mercury

作者：Slavin James A^*; Lepping Ronald P; Wu Chin Chun; Anderson Brian J; Baker Daniel N; Benna Mehdi; Boardsen Scott A; Killen Rosemary M; Korth Haje; Krimigis Stamatios M; McClintock William E; McNutt Ralph L Jr; Sarantos Menelaos; Schriver David; Solomon Sean C; Travnicek Pavel; Zurbuchen Thomas H

来源：Geophysical Research Letters, 2010, 37(2): L02105.

DOI：10.1029/2009GL041485

Six flux transfer events (FTEs) were encountered during MESSENGER's first two flybys of Mercury (M1 and M2). For M1 the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) was predominantly northward and four FTEs with durations of 1 to 6 s were observed in the magnetosheath following southward IMF turnings. The IMF was steadily southward during M2, and an FTE 4 s in duration was observed just inside the dawn magnetopause followed similar to 32 s later by a 7-s FTE in the magnetosheath. Flux rope models were fit to the magnetic field data to determine FTE dimensions and flux content. The largest FTE observed by MESSENGER had a diameter of similar to 1 R(M) (where R(M) is Mercury's radius), and its open magnetic field increased the fraction of the surface exposed to the solar wind by 10-20 percent and contributed up to similar to 30 kV to the cross-magnetospheric electric potential. Citation: Slavin, J. A., et al. (2010), MESSENGER observations of large flux transfer events at Mercury, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L02105, doi:10.1029/2009GL041485.

• 出版日期2010-1-29