MPPE

Mercury Plasma Particle Experiment (MPPE)

Seven sensors of MPPE

Locations of the seven MPPE sensors

Measurement Principle

The Mercury Plasma Particle Experiment (MPPE) suit is a comprehensive instrument package to observe the solar wind at Mercury’s position and the whole plasma environment at Mercury. It consists of seven sensors including Mercury Electron Analyzers (MEA1 and MEA2), Mercury Ion Analyzer (MIA), Mass Spectrum Analyzer (MSA), High-Energy Particle instrument for electron (HEP-e), High-Energy Particle instrument for ion (HEP-i), and Energetic Neutrals Analyzer (ENA). These sensors measure plasma, high-energy particles and energetic neutral atoms with sufficiently high time resolution, wide energy and dynamic range, wide angle coverage, and high mass resolution.

Members

Principal Investigator
Yoshifumi Saito (ISAS/JAXA, Japan)
Co-PI of MPPE (MSA)
Dominique Delcourt (LPP, France)
Co-PI of MPPE (ENA)
Stas Barabash (IRF, Sweden)
Co-PI of MPPE (HEP)
Masafumi Hirahara (Nagoya University, Japan)
Lead Co-I of MPPE (MEA)
Nicolas André (IRAP, France)
Lead Co-I of MPPE (MIA)
Andrew Coates (MSSL, UK)
Lead Co-I of MPPE (HEP)
Takeshi Takashima (ISAS/JAXA, Japan)
Lead Co-I of MPPE (ENA)
Kazushi Asamura (ISAS/JAXA, Japan)

Seven sensors

Sensors Outline Target
Mercury Electron Analyzer (MEA) A top-hat type electrostatic analyzer with toroidal deflectors, microchannel plates (MCPs) The 3D distribution function of low-energy electrons from 3 eV to 26 keV
Mercury Ion Analyzer (MIA) A top-hat type electrostatic analyzer with toroidal deflectors, microchannel plates (MCPs) The 3D distribution function of ions from 10 eV/q up to 30 keV/q depending on the operation modes with 64 spin angle sectors
Mass Spectrum Analyzer (MSA) Top-hat electrostatic analyzer combined with "reflectron" Time-Of-Flight chamber The 3D distribution functions of ions from 1 eV/q up to 38 keV/q with high mass resolution
High-Energy Particle instrument for electron (HEP-e) Single-sided strip silicon solid-state detector (SSSD) Energy spectra of high-energy electrons from 30 up to 700 keV
High-Energy Particle instrument for ion (HEP-i) A conic-shaped collimator, time-of-flight unit and microchannel plate assembly (MCP), single-sided strip silicon solid-state detector (SSSD) Energy spectra or velocity distributions of high-energy ions from 30 keV up to 1.5 MeV with six field-of-view directions
Energetic Neutrals Analyzer (ENA) Conversion surface, photon absorbing surfaces Mass-identified energetic neutral atoms from 10 eV to 3.3 keV

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