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Mercury's field-aligned currents: perspectives from hybrid simulations
Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Mohe Observatory of Geophysics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Physics.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9450-6672
Center for Space Physics and Department of Astronomy, Boston University, MA, Boston, United States.
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2025 (English)In: Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets, ISSN 2169-9097, E-ISSN 2169-9100, Vol. 130, no 2, article id e2024JE008610Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Previous studies suggested that Mercury's magnetosphere could possess Earth-like field-aligned currents (FACs) despite the absence of an ionosphere. However, due to the limited coverage of spacecraft observations, our understanding of Mercury's FACs is scarce. Here, we employed Amitis, a hybrid-kinetic plasma model, to investigate the establishment and global pattern of Mercury's FACs. The responses of Mercury's FACs to various interior conductivity profiles and different orientations of the upstream interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) were simulated. It has been shown that the profile of a less resistive upper layer and a conducting core favors the establishment of FACs. Three types of large-scale FACs (Region 1-like, Region 2-like and NBZ-like FACs) are shown in simulations. Comparison with previous observations suggests that Mercury's effective conductance for closing R1-like FACs is ∼2.4–3.4 S. The influence of IMF orientation on FACs is similar to that observed in Earth's magnetosphere, but the response of the R2-like FACs to the IMF orientation is different.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2025. Vol. 130, no 2, article id e2024JE008610
Keywords [en]
conductivity, core, field-aligned current, interplanetary magnetic field, magnetosphere, Mercury
National Category
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-236285DOI: 10.1029/2024JE008610ISI: 001427723500001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85219163658OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-236285DiVA, id: diva2:1945181
Funder
Swedish National Space Board, 2022‐00183Available from: 2025-03-18 Created: 2025-03-18 Last updated: 2025-03-18Bibliographically approved

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Fatemi, Shahab

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