PLASMA/RADIO WAVE OBSERVATIONS AT MERCURY BY THE BEPICOLOMBO MMO SPACECRAFT - Advances in Geosciences - page 71

PLASMA/RADIO WAVE OBSERVATIONS AT MERCURY
BY THE BEPICOLOMBO MMO SPACECRAFT
H. MATSUMOTO ∗,† , J.-L. BOUGERET ‡ ,L.G.BLOMBERG § ,H.KOJIMA † ,
S. YAGITANI ¶ ,Y.OMURA † ,M.MONCUQUET ‡ , G. CHANTEUR ,
Y. KASABA ∗∗ ,J.-G.TROTIGNON †† , Y. KASAHARA ¶ and
BEPICOLOMBO MMO PWI TEAM ‡‡
† RISH, Kyoto University, Japan
‡ LESIA-Observatoire de Paris, France
§ Alfven Laboratory, KTH, Sweden
¶ Kanazawa University Japan
CETP/IPSL, France
∗∗ ISAS/JAXA, Japan
†† LPCE, CNRS, France
∗ [e-mail]
The BepiColombo Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) spacecraft com-
prises the plasma and radio wave observation system called Plasma Wave Inves-
tigation (PWI). The PWI is designed and developed in collaboration between
Japanese and European scientists. Since plasma/radio wave receivers were not
installed in the former spacecraft, Mariner 10, which observed the planet Mer-
cury, the PWI onboard the MMO spacecraft will provide the first plasma/radio
wave data from Mercury orbit. It will give important information for studies
of energy exchange processes in the unique magnetosphere of Mercury char-
acterized by the interaction between the relatively large planet without iono-
sphere and the solar wind with high dynamic pressure. The PWI consists of
three sets of receivers (EWO, SORBET, and AM 2 P), connected to two sets of
electric field sensors (MEFISTO and WPT) and two kinds of magnetic field
sensors (LF-SC and DB-SC). The PWI will observe both waveforms and fre-
quency spectra in the frequency range from DC to 10 MHz for the electric field
∗ Corresponding author.
‡‡ The BepiColombo MMO PWI team consists of the members participating from the
following institutions and universities:
[Japan] RISH/Kyoto University; Kanazawa University; ISAS/JAXA; Ehime University;
Kyoto Sangyo University; Toyama Prefectural University; ROIS/National Institute of
Polar Research; Graduate scool of Science/Tohoku University
[France] LESIA-Observatoire de Paris; CETP/IPSL; LPCE/CNRS, Orleans
[Sweden] Alfven Laboratory, Royal Institute of Technology; Swedish Institute of Space
Physics
[Finland] University of Oulu; Finnish Meteorological Institute
[Norway] University of Oslo
[Netherlands] ESA/RSSD, Noordwijk
[Hungary] Eotvos University
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