MESSENGER Observations of Internal and External Magnetic Fields at Mercury

Orbital observations with the Magnetometer (MAG) on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft allow global-scale modeling of Mercury's internal and external magnetic fields. We use a paraboloid model with a cross-tail current sheet to quantify the external magnetic fields and examine possible origins for any residual long-wavelength signals. Observations inside the magnetosphere extend from ~60°S to 86°N; those below 1000 km altitude are confined to the northern hemisphere, with global coverage in body-fixed longitude and in local time. We use MAG data to constrain the magnetopause sub-solar standoff distance, the dipole tilt and offset along the rotation axis, the tail field, and the distance to the inner edge of the tail current sheet. Additional parameters, including the dipole moment, are constrained by the goodness of fit of the model to the MAG data. Inbound and outbound magnetopause crossings are identified on each magnetosphere pass. The mean magnetopause shape for the first 120 days in orbit is modeled by a paraboloid of revolution having a subsolar standoff distance of 1.4 R_M (where R_M is Mercury's radius). Observations of Mercury's magnetic equator indicate a southward-directed dipole, offset northward along the rotation axis from the planetary center by 484 km, with a tilt of less than 2.5°. These observations constrain the dipole moment to be 195 ± 10 nT-R_M³. The paraboloid model successfully matches the first-order global signature of the field, with residual amplitudes typically less than 50 nT. Residuals contain signatures from several different sources: (1) variations in the long-wavelength field that are slow relative to the magnetospheric transit time and which correspond to differences in the baseline magnetospheric currents; (2) multipolar contributions to the internal field of either core or crustal origin; (3) plasma and current systems within the magnetosphere that are not captured in the paraboloid model; and (4) temporal variability of magnetospheric currents on time scales short compared with magnetospheric transits. We analyze the residuals to identify contributions from the first two processes, and we explore techniques to distinguish short-wavelength signatures of the last three processes.