Modelling of magnetic field measurements at Mercury

Mapping Mercury's internal magnetic field with a magnetometer in closed orbit around the planet will provide valuable information about its internal structure. By measuring magnetic field multipoles of order higher than the dipole we could, in principle, determine some properties, such as size...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Planetary and space science 2001-12, Vol.49 (14), p.1637-1642
Main Authors: Giampieri, Giacomo, Balogh, André
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Mapping Mercury's internal magnetic field with a magnetometer in closed orbit around the planet will provide valuable information about its internal structure. By measuring magnetic field multipoles of order higher than the dipole we could, in principle, determine some properties, such as size and location, of the internal source. Here we try to quantify these expectations. Using conceptual models, we simulate the actual measurement during the BepiColombo mission, and then we analyze the simulated data in order to estimate the measurement errors due to the limited spatial sampling. We also investigate our ability to locate the field generating current system within the planet. Finally, we address the main limitation of our model, due to the presence of time-varying external magnetospheric currents.
ISSN:0032-0633
1873-5088
DOI:10.1016/S0032-0633(01)00101-5