Mercury

MESSENGER observations of Mercury’s magnetotail provided us with details of how the magnetic field of Mercury looked like. However, the corrects to the field-aligned currents (FACs) to the observations were done using empirical models. Along with Regupathi Angappan, I adapted the MHD code GAMERA to correctly map the currents in Mercury’s mantle and solve for the FACs. Using these simulations, we are now in a position to be able to correct the MESSENGER observations.

( Picture from a simulation by Regupathi Angappan. )