Rojo, M;
Persson, M;
Sauvaud, J-A;
Aizawa, S;
Nicolaou, G;
Penou, E;
Barthe, A;
... Murakami, G; + view all
(2024)
Electron moments derived from the Mercury Electron Analyzer during the cruise phase of BepiColombo.
Astronomy & Astrophysics
, 683
, Article A99. 10.1051/0004-6361/202347843.
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Abstract
Aims. We derive electron density and temperature from observations obtained by the Mercury Electron Analyzer on board Mio during the cruise phase of BepiColombo while the spacecraft is in a stacked configuration. Methods. In order to remove the secondary electron emission contribution, we first fit the core electron population of the solar wind with a Maxwellian distribution. We then subtract the resulting distribution from the complete electron spectrum, and suppress the residual count rates observed at low energies. Hence, our corrected count rates consist of the sum of the fitted Maxwellian core electron population with a contribution at higher energies. We finally estimate the electron density and temperature from the corrected count rates using a classical integration method. We illustrate the results of our derivation for two case studies, including the second Venus flyby of BepiColombo when the Solar Orbiter spacecraft was located nearby, and for a statistical study using observations obtained to date for distances to the Sun ranging from 0.3 to 0.9 AU. Results. When compared either to measurements of Solar Orbiter or to measurements obtained by HELIOS and Parker Solar Probe, our method leads to a good estimation of the electron density and temperature. Hence, despite the strong limitations arising from the stacked configuration of BepiColombo during its cruise phase, we illustrate how we can retrieve reasonable estimates for the electron density and temperature for timescales from days down to several seconds.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Electron moments derived from the Mercury Electron Analyzer during the cruise phase of BepiColombo |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1051/0004-6361/202347843 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202347843 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Physical Sciences, Astronomy & Astrophysics, plasmas, instrumentation: detectors, methods: data analysis, SOLAR-WIND, 1 AU, PARTICLE, EMISSION |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10190242 |
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