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Current Sheets, Plasmoids and Flux Ropes in the Heliosphere. Part II: Theoretical Aspects
Malova, H. V.; Zelenyi, L. M.; Bruno, R. +13 more
Our understanding of processes occurring in the heliosphere historically began with reduced dimensionality - one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) sketches and models, which aimed to illustrate views on large-scale structures in the solar wind. However, any reduced dimensionality vision of the heliosphere limits the possible interpretation…
Water Group Exospheres and Surface Interactions on the Moon, Mercury, and Ceres
Li, Shuai; Wöhler, Christian; Berezhnoy, Alexey A. +7 more
Water ice, abundant in the outer solar system, is volatile in the inner solar system. On the largest airless bodies of the inner solar system (Mercury, the Moon, Ceres), water can be an exospheric species but also occurs in its condensed form. Mercury hosts water ice deposits in permanently shadowed regions near its poles that act as cold traps. W…
Linking the Sun to the Heliosphere Using Composition Data and Modelling
Del Zanna, Giulio; Wimmer-Schweingruber, Robert F.; Lynch, Benjamin J. +13 more
Our understanding of the formation and evolution of the corona and the heliosphere is linked to our capability of properly interpret the data from remote sensing and in-situ observations. In this respect, being able to correctly connect in-situ observations with their source regions on the Sun is the key for solving this problem. In this work we a…
Sixty Years of Element Abundance Measurements in Solar Energetic Particles
Reames, Donald V.
Sixty years ago the first observation was published showing solar energetic particles (SEPs) with a sampling of chemical elements with atomic numbers 6 ≤Z ≤18 above 40 MeV amu−1. Thus began study of the direct products of dynamic physics in the solar corona. As we have progressed from 4-min sounding-rocket samples to continuous satellit…
The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter
Lara, L. M.; Oberst, J.; Thomas, N. +48 more
The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA) is the first European laser altimeter constructed for interplanetary flight. BELA uses a 50 mJ pulsed Nd:YAG laser operating at 10 Hz with a 20 cm aperture receiver to perform the ranging. The instrument also uses a digital approach for range detection and pulse analysis. The ranging accuracy is expected to b…
Volatiles and Refractories in Surface-Bounded Exospheres in the Inner Solar System
Leblanc, François; Nishino, Masaki N.; Vervack, Ronald J. +11 more
Volatiles and refractories represent the two end-members in the volatility range of species in any surface-bounded exosphere. Volatiles include elements that do not interact strongly with the surface, such as neon (detected on the Moon) and helium (detected both on the Moon and at Mercury), but also argon, a noble gas (detected on the Moon) that s…
The Mercury Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (MGNS) Onboard the Mercury Planetary Orbiter of the BepiColombo Mission: Design Updates and First Measurements in Space
Schulz, R.; Mitrofanov, I. G.; Kozyrev, A. S. +7 more
An updated set of goals and objectives for the Mercury Gamma and Neutron Spectrometer (MGNS) are presented based on the most recent findings of the MESSENGER mission. The updated design of MGNS with the new CeBr3 crystal for detection of gamma-ray along with its benefits for the detection of 40K and K/Th ratio are discussed. …
BepiColombo Ground Segment and Mission Operations
Murakami, G.; Martinez, S.; Budnik, F. +7 more
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury was launched in October 2018. It includes two scientific Mercury orbiters, flying as a single stack during the seven years interplanetary transfer, and as individual spacecraft operated by their respective space Agencies ESA and JAXA once deployed in their respective scientific orbit around Mercury. Thre…
The Origins and Geological Histories of Deimos and Phobos: Hypotheses and Open Questions
Head, James W.; Ramsley, Kenneth R.
Quantitative measurements and photographic imaging of the moons of Mars set limits on several key geological conclusions-such as the orbits of the moons. Other examples include their estimated bulk densities where Phobos has a density of ∼1.876 g/cm3 and Deimos has a lower and less certain density of ∼1.48 g/cm3. Imaging data…
Correction to: SERENA: Particle Instrument Suite for Determining the Sun-Mercury Interaction from BepiColombo
Kallio, E.; Schmidt, W.; Barabash, S. +118 more
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-021-00809-8