INAF-bidimensional maps of Mercury Na exosphere

Dataset of observations of Mercury’s exosphere in the sodium D lines. Data are taken from the ground-based solar telescope THEMIS (years 2009-2013). They have been produced in both D1 and D2 lines (when both available) and converted into bi-dimensional maps of Rayleigh emission. Estimation of the “seeing” parameter is included in the jpeg files. Here the original fits files are given too for the whole data base (2007-2014), and it may be expanded to the most recent data from 2021 and 2022 (TBC). Data can be provided both uncalibrated and/or calibrated (TBD).

References

Leblanc, F., Doressoundiram, A., Schneider, N., Mangano, V., López Ariste, A., Lemen, C., Gelly, B., Barbieri, C. and Cremonese, G., 2008. High latitude peaks in Mercury’s sodium exosphere: Spectral signature using THEMIS solar telescope. Geophysical Research Letters, 35(18).

Leblanc, F., Doressoundiram, A., Schneider, N., Massetti, S., Wedlund, M., López Ariste, A., Barbieri, C., Mangano, V. and Cremonese, G., 2009. Short‐term variations of Mercury’s Na exosphere observed with very high spectral resolution. Geophysical research letters, 36(7).

Mangano, V., Massetti, S., Milillo, A., Mura, A., Orsini, S. and Leblanc, F., 2013. Dynamical evolution of sodium anisotropies in the exosphere of Mercury. Planetary and Space Science, 82, pp.1-10.

Mangano, V., Massetti, S., Milillo, A., Plainaki, C., Orsini, S., Rispoli, R. and Leblanc, F., 2015. THEMIS Na exosphere observations of Mercury and their correlation with in-situ magnetic field measurements by MESSENGER. Planetary and Space Science, 115, pp.102-109.

Massetti, S., Mangano, V., Milillo, A., Mura, A., Orsini, S. and Plainaki, C., 2017. Short‐term observations of double‐peaked Na emission from Mercury’s exosphere. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(7), pp.2970-2977.

Orsini, S., Mangano, V., Milillo, A., Plainaki, C., Mura, A., Raines, J.M., De Angelis, E., Rispoli, R., Lazzarotto, F. and Aronica, A., 2018. Mercury sodium exospheric emission as a proxy for solar perturbations transit. Scientific reports, 8(1), p.928.

Dataset summary

internal_name:	inaf_na_mercexo_image
publisher:	Valeria Mangano, INAF-IAPS
alph_code:	57
id_tmp:	76
short_name:	Merc_exos_Na_fts
identifier:	aspis://inaf/na_mercexo_image
dynamic:	period 2009-2013 is static, but if we decide to include also most recent data, it will grow in time.
size:	1GB
format:	fits
type:	image
records_number:	7
time_start:	2009-04-17
time_stop:	2013-05-25
spatial:	Mercury
messenger:	photons
spectral_min:	5890
spectral_max:	5896
spectral_units:	Angstrom
observable:	{IMF,SW,CME}
latest update:	2024-04-04 01:59:34

Columns specification

progr	column	units	type	description
1	time	UTC	datetime	date and time of start of spectral scan
2	heliocentric_longitude	deg	float	Mercury heliocentric longitude [deg]
3	heliocentric_latitude	deg	float	Mercury heliocentric latitude [deg]
4	heliocentric_distance	AU	float	Mercury heliocentric distance [AU]
5	true_anomaly_angle	deg	float	Mercury True Anomaly Angle [deg]
6	phase_angle	deg	float	Mercury Phase Angle [deg]
7	disk_visibility	%	float	Percentage of Mercury disk lit by the Sun
8	seeing	arcsec	float	estimated seeing during the spectral scan [arcsec]
9	seeing err	arcsec	float	error associated with the seeing estimation [arcsec]
10	ave emission	kR	float	Average value of the D2 Na emission [kR]
11	emission err	kR	float	error associated with the Average value of the Na emission [kR]
12	type	char	string	code for emission peaks morphology according to doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2015.04.001
13	data_name	char	string	the name of the file with the data
14	prew_name	char	string	the name of the full preview file
15	thumb_name	char	string	the name of the thumbnail file