Lists of Magnetopause and Bow Shock Crossings of Mercury by MESSENGER Spacecraft

The dataset titled “Lists of Magnetopause and Bow Shock Crossings of Mercury by MESSENGER Spacecraft” employs the measurements from the MESSENGER spacecraft’s Magnetometer (MAG) and Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FPIS) instruments to identify magnetopause and bow shock crossings during MESSENGER's orbit of Mercury. MESSENGER's data orbiting Mercury were collected between 23-03-2011 and 30-04-2015 and are available from the Planetary Data System’s Planetary Plasma Interactions (PDS/PPI) Node at https://pds-ppi.igpp.ucla.edu.

The dataset includes four lists:

a, Bow_Shock_Out_Time_Duration_public_version_WeijieSun_20230829.txt

b, Bow_Shock_In_Time_Duration__public_version_WeijieSun_20230829.txt

c, MagPause_In_Time_Duration__public_version_WeijieSun_20230829.txt

d, MagPause_Out_Time_Duration_public_version_WeijieSun_20230829.txt

Here are examples for the time in the list:

Example A

2011 03 23 15 39 10.5  2011 03 23 16 24 02.4  BSO m 

This entry represents multiple bow shock crossings. The first six columns indicate the time of the first boundary crossing, while the next six columns indicate the time of the last boundary crossing. “BSO” stands for outbound crossing of the bow shock, and “m” indicates that this is a multiple bow shock crossing made by MESSENGER. Only the first and last boundaries were selected out, we did not identify the boundary crossings in between.

Example B

2011 03 25 13 04 24.2  2011 03 25 13 04 24.0  BSI s 

This entry represents a single bow shock crossing. The first six columns and the next six columns are identical, indicating that this is a single event. “BSI” stands for inbound crossing of the bow shock, and “s” indicates that this is a single bow shock crossing made by MESSENGER.

The dataset does not include magnetopause and bow shock crossings during the following time intervals:

a. From 03:02 to 20:00 on 05-04-2011

b. From 24-05-2011 to 03-06-2011

c. From 17:50 to 22:53 on 16-04-2012

d. From 09-06-2012 to 13-06-2012

e. From 07:30 on 08-01-2013 to 16:00 on 09-01-2013

f. From 07:55 to 18:33 on 28-02-2013

g. From 14:22 to 17:38 on 26-12-2014

The current version is updated on 29 August 2023.

This work was supported by NASA Discovery Data Analysis Program (DDAP) Grant #80NSSC22K1061 (PI Weijie Sun).