Mercury’s magnetosphere is the smallest of all the planets in the solar system. The combination of a weak intrinsic magnetic field and its close proximity to the Sun produces extreme, and highly variable magnetospheric interactions. Among other effects, variations in the upstream solar wind conditions cause highly dynamic fluctuations in the morphology of its magnetospheric boundaries, the bow shock and the magnetopause. We present a new list of bow shock and magnetopause crossings based on automated region classification for the MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) mission. We fit a random forest model to magnetometer and ephemeris data to classify the solar wind, magnetosheath, and magnetosphere regions surrounding Mercury. The random forest was highly accurate when predicting the testing dataset, with an accuracy of 0.984 ± 0.0008. We apply this model to the orbital phase (March 2011 to April 2015) of the MESSENGER mission, and determine crossings automatically where changes in region classification occur. We explore the spatial distribution of these new crossings and compare against existing datasets of boundary crossing intervals. Furthermore, we outline a method for how these classifications can be used as a statistical tool to predict where spacecraft from the BepiColombo mission will cross these boundaries in the future.
Identifying MESSENGER Magnetospheric Boundary Crossings Using a Random Forest Region Classifier
Jeudi 9 octobre 2025
de
11:00 à
12:00
Bâtiment 17 - Salle de conférence
