Effect of escaping photoelectrons on the magnetic field of Mercury

• Main Author: Xu, Junjie
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: KTH, Rymd- och plasmafysik 2012
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-91929

Mercury is the tiniest planet in the solar system and that closest tothe Sun. It has a similar magnetosphere like the Earth, which to firstorder can be described as a magnetic dipole. The center of the dipoleis shifted 0.2 Mercury radii toward north, hence, the magnetic strengthare not equal at same latitude on the north and the south hemisphere.This asymmetric magnetosphere in reference to Mercury's equatorialplan, leads to the consequences that only some of the photoelectronsemitted from the south surface will reach the conjugate surface, andsome of them will mirror, whereas all the photoelectrons from the northwill reach the south surface. This phenomenon induces a potential difference,an electric field, and a current. It is the aim of this project thatto study the structure of Mercury's magnetosphere, the distribution ofthe photoelectrons, the electric field and the photoelectron currents.