Fig. 2: Energy-time spectrograms of the plasma measured during the third Mercury flyby.
From: Mercury’s plasma environment after BepiColombo’s third flyby
a shows the differential directional energy flux measured by the Mass Spectrum Analyzer (MSA). b shows the differential directional energy flux of the ions measured by the Mercury Ion Analyzer (MIA). shows the differential directional energy flux of the electrons observed by one of the Mercury Electron Analyzers (MEA 2) (c). X', Y', and Z' correspond to the location of the spacecraft in aberrated Mercury–Sun magnetospheric coordinate system. MLAT and LT represent the Magnetic Latitude and the Local Time respectively. The magenta, cyan, and red vertical lines represent the inbound (and outbound) bow shock, magnetopause, and closest approach respectively. The grey dashed lines, delimit the Low Latitude Boundary Layer (LLBL), Plasma Sheet Horns (PSH), and ring current regions. The black vertical lines delimit the period during which BepiColombo was in the planet Umbra. Impulsive enhancements of the ion flux inside the LLBL are noticeable (small black arrows), that imply the occurrence of injection processes.
