What Density of Magnetosheath Sodium Ions Can Provide the Observed Decrease in the Magnetic Field of the “Double Magnetopause” during the First MESSENGER Flyby?

Abstract

On 14 January 2008, the MESSENGER spacecraft, during its first flyby around Mercury, recorded the magnetic field structure, which was later called the “double magnetopause”. The role of sodium ions penetrating into the Hermean magnetosphere from the magnetosheath in generation of this structure has been discussed since then. The violation of the symmetry of the plasma parameters at the magnetopause is the cause of the magnetizing current generation. Here, we consider whether the change in the density of sodium ions on both sides of the Hermean magnetopause could be the cause of a wide diamagnetic current in the magnetosphere at its dawn-side boundary observed during the first MESSENGER flyby. In the present paper, we propose an analytical approach that made it possible to determine the magnetosheath Na+ density excess providing the best agreement between the calculation results and the observed magnetic field in the double magnetopause.