Seasonal Variability of Mercury's Sodium Exosphere Deduced From MESSENGER Data and Numerical Simulation

摘要

Mercury is valuable to us because we can see the interactions between the planet and its space environment. This research aims to clarify how Mercury's neutral Na exosphere was produced. Data from MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging/Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MESSENGER/MASCS) and model calculations that examine possible generation, transportation, and dissipation processes were compared. First, the seasonal variability in the amount of Na exosphere was analyzed for each local time (LT) using MASCS data. Previous research has shown that the amount of Na above LT12 reaches its maximum at the aphelion and that this maximum is recorded only at LT12. Following this result, we constructed a 3-D Na exosphere model to understand the key seasonal variability processes occurring around LT12. The numerical calculation produced results that were consistent with the MASCS observations regarding the vertical profile and the seasonal variability at LT06 and LT18. However, the peak that occurs around the aphelion at LT12 could not be reproduced. However, the model produced results suggesting that less than 10~8 kg of comet stream dust particles per Mercury year could be the local and short-term source of Na.