THE HERMEAN BOW SHOCK AND ION FORESHOCK AS SEEN BY THREE-DIMENSIONAL GLOBAL HYBRID SIMULATIONS

Abstract:

The thinness of the Hermean magnetosheath evidenced by Mariner 10 and MESSENGER observations results from the small average standoff distance of the Bow Shock equal to 1.45R_M and has important consequences especially in the region of the parallel shock. The magnetopause is clearly identified in front of the perpendicular shock meanwhile it is hardly recognized in front of the parallel shock due to a strong interaction between the shock and the magnetospheric boundary mediated by the magnetosheath flow. This interaction is investigated by means of three-dimensional global hybrid simulations for different IMF orientations and by varying the spatial resolution of the simulations between 120 and 40km. Accordingly to MESSENGER observations (Anderson et al, 2012) the planetary magnetic field implemented in the simulations combines a dipole and a quadrupole axisymmetric sources (Richer et al, 2012).

References

Anderson, B. J., C. L. Johnson, H. Korth, R. M. Winslow, J. E. Borovsky, M. E. Purucker, J. A. Slavin, S. C. Solomon, M.T. Zuber, and R. L. McNutt Jr. (2012), Low-degree structure in Mercury’s planetary magnetic field, J. Geophys. Res.,117, E00L12, doi:10.1029/2012JE004159.

Richer, E., R. Modolo, G. M. Chanteur, S. Hess, and F. Leblanc (2012), A global hybrid model for Mercury’s interaction with the solar wind: Case study of the dipole representation, J. Geophys. Res., 117, A10228, doi:10.1029/2012JA017898.