Abstract | The THEMIS ground-based solar telescope performed several Mercury sodium emission remote sensing campaigns during times when the MESSENGER spacecraft was orbiting around the planet, in between 2011-2013. By taking profit from local magnetic field measurements as taken by MESSENGER, the typical two-peaks sodium emission detected by means of one-hour scans images of the day-side planet, as performed by THEMIS, have been statistically related to the local IMF intensity and direction. In this presentation, we show how the Mercury magnetosphere structure reacts to the IMF features, in terms of reconnection and ion precipitation rates. We show that the sodium polar emission can be interpreted as a perfect tracer of such dynamics, so that in this way, ground-based remote sensing makes Mercury a permanent monitor of the solar activity in the inner heliosphere. |
