Search Publications
BepiColombo - Mission Overview and Science Goals
Orsini, S.; Quemerais, E.; Glassmeier, K. -H. +28 more
BepiColombo is a joint mission between the European Space Agency, ESA, and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, to perform a comprehensive exploration of Mercury. Launched on 20th October 2018 from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, the spacecraft is now en route to Mercury.
Slow-Mode Magnetoacoustic Waves in Coronal Loops
Reale, Fabio; Srivastava, Abhishek K.; Ofman, Leon +3 more
Rapidly decaying long-period oscillations often occur in hot coronal loops of active regions associated with small (or micro-) flares. This kind of wave activity was first discovered with the SOHO/SUMER spectrometer from Doppler velocity measurements of hot emission lines, thus also often called "SUMER" oscillations. They were mainly interpreted a…
Magnetohydrodynamic Waves in Open Coronal Structures
Tian, H.; Wang, T. J.; Banerjee, D. +8 more
Modern observatories have revealed the ubiquitous presence of magnetohydrodynamic waves in the solar corona. The propagating waves (in contrast to the standing waves) are usually originated in the lower solar atmosphere which makes them particularly relevant to coronal heating. Furthermore, open coronal structures are believed to be the source reg…
The BepiColombo Planetary Magnetometer MPO-MAG: What Can We Learn from the Hermean Magnetic Field?
Balogh, A.; Glassmeier, K. -H.; Nakamura, R. +29 more
The magnetometer instrument MPO-MAG on-board the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) of the BepiColombo mission en-route to Mercury is introduced, with its instrument design, its calibration and scientific targets. The instrument is comprised of two tri-axial fluxgate magnetometers mounted on a 2.9 m boom and are 0.8 m apart. They monitor the magnetic…
Understanding the Origins of Problem Geomagnetic Storms Associated with "Stealth" Coronal Mass Ejections
Rouillard, Alexis P.; Pagano, Paolo; Nitta, Nariaki V. +14 more
Geomagnetic storms are an important aspect of space weather and can result in significant impacts on space- and ground-based assets. The majority of strong storms are associated with the passage of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) in the near-Earth environment. In many cases, these ICMEs can be traced back unambiguously to a specific …
Correction to: X-Ray Properties of TDEs
Komossa, S.; Jonker, P. G.; Auchettl, K. +1 more
Observational astronomy of tidal disruption events (TDEs) began with the detection of X-ray flares from quiescent galaxies during the ROSAT all-sky survey of 1990-1991. The flares complied with theoretical expectations, having high peak luminosities (Lx up to ≥4 ×1044 erg/s), a thermal spectrum with k T ∼few ×105 K…
The Location of Magnetic Reconnection at Earth's Magnetopause
Fuselier, S. A.; Trattner, K. J.; Petrinec, S. M.
One of the major questions about magnetic reconnection is how specific solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field conditions influence where reconnection occurs at the Earth's magnetopause. There are two reconnection scenarios discussed in the literature: a) anti-parallel reconnection and b) component reconnection. Early spacecraft observations …
Current Sheets, Plasmoids and Flux Ropes in the Heliosphere. Part I. 2-D or not 2-D? General and Observational Aspects
Li, Gang; Bruno, R.; Malandraki, O. +13 more
Recent accumulation of a critical mass of observational material from different spacecraft complete with the enhanced abilities of numerical methods have led to a boom of studies revealing the high complexity of processes occurring in the heliosphere. Views on the solar wind filling the interplanetary medium have dramatically developed from the be…
Geodesy, Geophysics and Fundamental Physics Investigations of the BepiColombo Mission
Cappuccio, Paolo; di Stefano, Ivan; Iess, Luciano +15 more
In preparation for the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury, thematic working groups had been established for coordinating the activities within the BepiColombo Science Working Team in specific fields. Here we describe the scientific goals of the Geodesy and Geophysics Working Group (GGWG) that aims at addressing fundamental questions regarding…
Pre-flight Calibration and Near-Earth Commissioning Results of the Mercury Plasma Particle Experiment (MPPE) Onboard MMO (Mio)
Zong, Qiugang; Barabash, Stas; Bruno, Roberto +73 more
BepiColombo Mio (previously called MMO: Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter) was successfully launched by Ariane 5 from Kourou, French Guiana on October 20, 2018. The Mercury Plasma/Particle Experiment (MPPE) is a comprehensive instrument package onboard Mio spacecraft used for plasma, high-energy particle and energetic neutral atom measurements. It co…