Volatiles and Refractories in Surface-Bounded Exospheres in the Inner Solar System.

Volatiles and refractories represent the two end-members in the volatility range of species in any surface-bounded exosphere. Volatiles include elements that do not interact strongly with the surface, such as neon (detected on the Moon) and helium (detected both on the Moon and at Mercury), but also argon, a noble gas (detected on the Moon) that surprisingly adsorbs at the cold lunar nighttime surface. Refractories include species such as calcium, magnesium, iron, and aluminum, all of which have very strong bonds with the lunar surface and thus need energetic processes to be ejected into the exosphere. Here we focus on the properties of species that have been detected in the exospheres of inner Solar System bodies, specifically the Moon and Mercury, and how they provide important information to understand source and loss processes of these exospheres, as well as their dependence on variations in external drivers.

A Cold-Pole Enhancement in Mercury's Sodium Exosphere.

The Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer (UVVS) component of the Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) on the MESSENGER spacecraft characterized the local-time distribution of the sodium exosphere over the course of its orbital mission. The observations show that the sodium exosphere is enhanced above Mercury's cold-pole longitudes. Based on previously published sodium exosphere models we infer that these regions act as nightside surface reservoirs, temporary sinks to the exosphere that collect sodium atoms transported anti-sunward. The reservoirs are revealed as exospheric enhancements when they are exposed to sunlight. As in the models the reservoir is depleted as the cold poles rotate from dawn to dusk, but unlike the models the depletion is only partial. The persistence of the reservoir means that it could, over the course of geologically long periods of time, contribute to an increase in the bulk concentration of sodium near the cold-pole longitudes.

MESSENGER observations of the spatial distribution of planetary ions near Mercury.

Global measurements by MESSENGER of the fluxes of heavy ions at Mercury, particularly sodium (Na(+)) and oxygen (O(+)), exhibit distinct maxima in the northern magnetic-cusp region, indicating that polar regions are important sources of Mercury's ionized exosphere, presumably through solar-wind sputtering near the poles. The observed fluxes of helium (He(+)) are more evenly distributed, indicating a more uniform source such as that expected from evaporation from a helium-saturated surface. In some regions near Mercury, especially the nightside equatorial region, the Na(+) pressure can be a substantial fraction of the proton pressure.

MESSENGER observations of extreme loading and unloading of Mercury's magnetic tail.

During MESSENGER's third flyby of Mercury, the magnetic field in the planet's magnetic tail increased by factors of 2 to 3.5 over intervals of 2 to 3 minutes. Magnetospheric substorms at Earth are powered by similar tail loading, but the amplitude is lower by a factor of approximately 10 and typical durations are approximately 1 hour. The extreme tail loading observed at Mercury implies that the relative intensity of substorms must be much larger than at Earth. The correspondence between the duration of tail field enhancements and the characteristic time for the Dungey cycle, which describes plasma circulation through Mercury's magnetosphere, suggests that such circulation determines the substorm time scale. A key aspect of tail unloading during terrestrial substorms is the acceleration of energetic charged particles, but no acceleration signatures were seen during the MESSENGER flyby.

MESSENGER observations of magnetic reconnection in Mercury's magnetosphere.

Solar wind energy transfer to planetary magnetospheres and ionospheres is controlled by magnetic reconnection, a process that determines the degree of connectivity between the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and a planet's magnetic field. During MESSENGER's second flyby of Mercury, a steady southward IMF was observed and the magnetopause was threaded by a strong magnetic field, indicating a reconnection rate ~10 times that typical at Earth. Moreover, a large flux transfer event was observed in the magnetosheath, and a plasmoid and multiple traveling compression regions were observed in Mercury's magnetotail, all products of reconnection. These observations indicate that Mercury's magnetosphere is much more responsive to IMF direction and dominated by the effects of reconnection than that of Earth or the other magnetized planets.