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The BepiColombo Mercury Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer: Science Goals, Instrument Performance and Operations
Bunce, Emma J.; Muinonen, Karri; Kallio, Esa +68 more
The Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer is a highly novel instrument that is designed to map Mercury's elemental composition from orbit at two angular resolutions. By observing the fluorescence X-rays generated when solar-coronal X-rays and charged particles interact with the surface regolith, MIXS will be able to measure the atomic composition of …
Ice Giant Circulation Patterns: Implications for Atmospheric Probes
de Pater, Imke; Fletcher, Leigh N.; Irwin, Patrick G. J. +4 more
Atmospheric circulation patterns derived from multi-spectral remote sensing can serve as a guide for choosing a suitable entry location for a future in situ probe mission to the Ice Giants. Since the Voyager-2 flybys in the 1980s, three decades of observations from ground- and space-based observatories have generated a picture of Ice Giant circula…
Physical Processes of Meso-Scale, Dynamic Auroral Forms
Sergeev, V. A.; Nishimura, Y.; Forsyth, C. +2 more
Meso-scale auroral forms, such as poleward boundary intensifications, streamers, omega bands, beads and giant undulations, are manifestations of dynamic processes in the magnetosphere driven, to a large part, by plasma instabilities in the magnetotail. New observations from ground- and space-based instrumentation and theoretical treatments are giv…
Mio—First Comprehensive Exploration of Mercury's Space Environment: Mission Overview
Barabash, Stas; Korablev, Oleg; Moncuquet, Michel +17 more
Mercury has a unique and complex space environment with its weak global magnetic field, intense solar wind, tenuous exosphere, and magnetospheric plasma particles. This complex system makes Mercury an excellent science target to understand effects of the solar wind to planetary environments. In addition, investigating Mercury's dynamic magnetosphe…
PHEBUS on Bepi-Colombo: Post-launch Update and Instrument Performance
Korablev, Oleg; Belyaev, Denis; Chaufray, Jean-Yves +14 more
The Bepi-Colombo mission was launched in October 2018, headed for Mercury. This mission is a collaboration between Europe and Japan. It is dedicated to the study of Mercury and its environment. It will be inserted into Mercury orbit in December 2025 after a 7-year long cruise. Probing of Hermean Exosphere By Ultraviolet Spectroscopy (PHEBUS) is an…
Plasma Wave Investigation (PWI) Aboard BepiColombo Mio on the Trip to the First Measurement of Electric Fields, Electromagnetic Waves, and Radio Waves Around Mercury
Karlsson, Tomas; Moncuquet, Michel; Issautier, Karine +14 more
The Plasma Wave Investigation (PWI) aboard the BepiColombo Mio (Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, MMO) will enable the first observations of electric fields, plasma waves, and radio waves in and around the Hermean magnetosphere and exosphere. The PWI has two sets of receivers (EWO with AM2P, SORBET) connected to two electric field sensors…
Magnetospheric Studies: A Requirement for Addressing Interdisciplinary Mysteries in the Ice Giant Systems
Roussos, E.; Rymer, A.; Allen, R. C. +18 more
Uranus and Neptune are the least-explored planets in our Solar System. This paper summarizes mysteries about these incredibly intriguing planets and their environments spurred by our limited observations from Voyager 2 and Earth-based systems. Several of these observations are either inconsistent with our current understanding built from exploring…
ISA, a High Sensitivity Accelerometer in the Interplanetary Space
Lucente, Marco; Lefevre, Carlo; Fiorenza, Emiliano +6 more
ISA (Italian Spring Accelerometer) is a high sensitivity accelerometer flying, as scientific payload, on-board one of the two spacecraft (the Mercury Planetary Orbiter) of BepiColombo, the first ESA mission to Mercury. The first commissioning phase (performed in the period November 2018 - August 2019) allowed to verify the functionality of the ins…
Cometary Comae-Surface Links
Skorov, Yuri; Kappel, David; Vincent, Jean-Baptiste +9 more
A comet is a highly dynamic object, undergoing a permanent state of change. These changes have to be carefully classified and considered according to their intrinsic temporal and spatial scales. The Rosetta mission has, through its contiguous in-situ and remote sensing coverage of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (hereafter 67P) over the time span …
Quiet, Discrete Auroral Arcs: Acceleration Mechanisms
Marghitu, O.; Karlsson, T.; Song, Y. +4 more
The theory of the acceleration of auroral particles is reviewed, focusing on developments in the last 15 years. We discuss elementary plasma physics processes leading to acceleration of electrons to energies compatible with emission observed for quiet, discrete auroral arcs, defined as arcs that have time scales of minutes or more and spatial scal…