Parametric study of the solar wind interaction with the Hermean magnetosphere for a weak interplanetary magnetic field

Abstract

The aim of this study is to simulate the interaction of the solar wind with the Hermean magnetosphere when the interplanetary magnetic field is weak, performing a parametric study for all the range of hydrodynamic values of the solar wind predicted on Mercury for the ENLIL + GONG WSA + Cone SWRC model: density from $12$ to $180$ cm${}^{-3}$, velocity from $200$ to $500$ km/s and temperatures from $2\cdot 10^4$ to $18\cdot 10^4$ K, and compare the results with a real MESSENGER orbit as reference case. We use the code PLUTO in spherical coordinates and an asymmetric multipolar expansion for the Hermean magnetic field. The study shows for all simulations a stand off distance larger than the Mercury radius and the presence of close magnetic field lines on the day side of the planet, so the dynamic pressure of the solar wind is not high enough to push the magnetopause on the planet surface if the interplanetary magnetic field is weak. The simulations with large dynamic pressure lead to a large compression of the Hermean magnetic field modifying its topology in the inner magnetosphere as well as the plasma flows from the magnetosheath towards the planet surface.

References in corpus (2)

• PLUTO: a Numerical Code for Computational Astrophysics
• The effect of interplanetary magnetic field orientation on the solar wind flux impacting Mercury's surface

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• Effect of the interplanetary magnetic field orientation and intensity in the mass and energy deposition on the Hermean surface
• Slow-mode rarefaction and compression fronts in the Hermean magnetosphere: From MESSENGER insights to future BepiColombo observations
• MHD Simulations Preliminarily Predict The Habitability and Radio Emission of TRAPPIST-1e
• Resistive MHD Simulations of Stellar Wind-Magnetosphere Coupling in TRAPPIST-1e