Alberti, T.; Sun, W.; Varsani, A.; Heyner, D.; Orsini, S.; Milillo, A.; Slavin, J. A.; Raines, J. M.; Aronica, A.; Auster, H.-U.; Barabash, S.; De Angelis, E.; Dandouras, I.; Jarvinen, R.; Jeszenszky, H.; Kallio, E.; Kazakov, A.; Laky, G.; Livi, S.; Mangano, V.; ... (2023). High-energy particle enhancements in the solar wind upstream Mercury during the first BepiColombo flyby: SERENA/PICAM and MPO-MAG observations. Astronomy and astrophysics, 669, A35. EDP Sciences 10.1051/0004-6361/202244662
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Context. The first BepiColombo Mercury flyby offered the unique opportunity to simultaneously characterize the plasma and the
magnetic field properties of the solar wind in the vicinity of the innermost planet of the Solar System (0.4 AU).
Aims. In this study, we use plasma observations by SERENA/PICAM and magnetic field measurements by MPO-MAG to characterize
the source with intermittent features (with a timescale of a few minutes) at ion energies above 1 keV observed in the solar wind
upstream of Mercury.
Methods. The solar wind properties have been investigated by means of low-resolution magnetic field (1 s) and plasma (64 s) data.
The minimum variance analysis and the Lundquist force-free model have been used.
Results. The combined analyses demonstrate that the intermittent ion features observed by PICAM at energies above 1 keV can
be associated with the passage of an interplanetary magnetic flux rope. We also validate our findings by means of Solar Orbiter
observations at a larger distance (0.6 AU).
Conclusions. The core of an interplanetary magnetic flux rope, hitting BepiColombo during its first Mercury flyby, produced highenergy (>1 keV) intermittent-like particle acceleration clearly distinct from the background solar wind, while at the edges of this
interplanetary structure compressional low-energy fluctuations have also been observed.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
|---|---|
Division/Institute: |
08 Faculty of Science > Physics Institute > Space Research and Planetary Sciences 08 Faculty of Science > Physics Institute |
UniBE Contributor: |
Wurz, Peter |
Subjects: |
500 Science > 530 Physics 500 Science > 520 Astronomy 600 Technology > 620 Engineering |
ISSN: |
0004-6361 |
Publisher: |
EDP Sciences |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Dora Ursula Zimmerer |
Date Deposited: |
10 Mar 2023 11:17 |
Last Modified: |
10 Mar 2023 23:26 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1051/0004-6361/202244662 |
BORIS DOI: |
10.48350/179778 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/179778 |
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