1,2,3,1,5,1,7,8,9- 1Austrian Academy of Sciences, Space Research Institute, Graz, Austria (martin.volwerk@oeaw.ac.at)
- 2Department of Space and Plasma Physics, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
- 3Dept.\of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Ellison Building, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST Newcastle, UK
- 4Institute for Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics, Technische Universitat Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstrasse 3, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
- 5Insitute of Physics, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
- 6Physics Dept., University of Pisa, Italy
- 7Department of Physics, Umea University, Sweden
- 8Istituto per la Scienza e la Tecnologia dei Plasmi, ISTP, Bari, Italy
- 9Space Physics Group, Geophysics Institute, National Autonomous University of Mexico
The MESSENGER magnetometer data for the years 2012 through 2015 are used to study the presence of mirror modes in Mercury's environment. Using magnetic field only detection of these structures, 10715 intervals of 20 s and longer are found in the solar wind, and in the magnetosheath and magnetosphere of Mercury. The distribution of mirror modes around the planet is similar to that found at Venus and Mars, however, the occurrence rate of 1.0E-4 per second is up to 2 orders of magnitude smaller than at the other two planets. The mirror modes are more prone to be excited near Mercury's aphelion. A comparison shows that mirror modes and magnetic holes have a similar behaviour around Mercury, and that about 40% of the mirror modes can also be identified as magnetic holes. Ion cyclotron waves show a lesser dependence on the true anomaly angle.
How to cite: Volwerk, M., Karlsson, T., Goetz, C., Heyner, D., Plaschke, F., Schmid, D., Simon Wedlund, C., Nakamura, R., Califano, F., Hamrin, M., Pucci, F., Settino, A., and Rojas-Castillo, D.: Mercury's Mirror Modes?, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-5030, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-5030, 2026.
