Abstract | During its orbit around Mercury, MESSENGER mission acquired a huge amount of data, allowing for a spectral and compositional analysis never achieved before.
MESSENGER/Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) [1] mapped for the first time, the entire surface of the planet at different spatial resolutions, with both a narrow and a multi filter wide angle camera, covering a range of wavelengths between ~0.4 and 1 µm.
MDIS together with the Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer - Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (MASCS-VIRS) [2], permitted a detailed geological and spectral analysis at different spatial scales.
In recent years, morphostratigraphic studies of several Mercury quadrangles have been performed by many authors (e.g. [3, 4, 5]), emphasizing a plenty of different terrains and geological features, in some cases associated with spectral variations [6, 7].
Here, we focus on localized features showing peculiar spectral characteristics, such as fresh material, low reflectance material and faculae, by using proper spectral parameters. In particular, our analysis is concentrated on the Mercury northern hemisphere, where the best MDIS-WAC and MASCS-VIRS spatial resolution data are available.
This work is preparatory for the BepiColombo/SIMBIO-SYS instrument [8], both for the selection of possible targets of interest, and for the integration of the data acquired by VIHI spectrometer and the STC and HRIC cameras.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) within the SIMBIO-SYS project (ASI-INAF agreement 2017-47-H.0).
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