SERENA: Particle Instrument Suite for Determining the Sun-Mercury Interaction from BepiColombo

Stefano Orsini (1) , S. A. Livi (2, 3) , H. Lichtenegger (4) , S. Barabash (5) , A. Milillo (1) , E. De Angelis (1) , M. Phillips (2) , G. Laky (4) , M. Wieser (5) , A. Olivieri (6) , C. Plainaki (6) , G. Ho (7) , R. M. Killen (8) , J. A. Slavin (3) , P. Wurz (9) , Jean-Jacques Berthelier (10) , I. Dandouras (11) , E. Kallio (12) , S. Mckenna-Lawlor (13) , S. Szalai (14) , K. Torkar (4) , O. Vaisberg (15) , F. Allegrini (2) , I. A. Daglis (16) , C. Dong (17) , C. P. Escoubet (18) , S. Fatemi (5) , M. Fränz (19) , S. Ivanovski (20) , N. Krupp (19) , H. Lammer (4) , François Leblanc (10) , V. Mangano (1) , A. Mura (1) , H. Nilsson (5) , J. M. Raines (3) , R. Rispoli (1) , M. Sarantos (8) , H. T. Smith (7) , K. Szego (14) , A. Aronica (1) , F. Camozzi , A. M. Di Lellis , G. Fremuth (21) , F. Giner (21) , R. Gurnee (22) , J. Hayes (7) , H. Jeszenszky (4) , F. Tominetti , B. Trantham (2) , J. Balaz (13) , W. Baumjohann (4) , D. Brienza (1) , U. Buhrke (19) , M. D. Bush (9) , M. Cantatore , S. Cibella (23) , L. Colasanti (1) , Gabriele Cremonese (24) , L. Cremonesi , M. D’alessandro (25) , Dominique Delcourt (26) , M. Delva (4) , M. Desai (2) , M. Fama (27) , M. Ferris (2) , H. Fischer (19) , A. Gaggero (23) , D. Gamborino (28) , P. Garnier (11) , W. C. Gibson (2) , R. Goldstein (2) , M. Grande (29) , V. Grishin (15) , D. Haggerty (7) , M. Holmström (5) , I. Horvath (14) , K.-C. Hsieh (30) , A. Jacques (8) , R. E. Johnson (31) , A. Kazakov (1) , K. Kecskemety (14) , H. Krüger (19) , C. Kürbisch (4) , F. Lazzarotto (24) , Frederic Leblanc (32) , M. Leichtfried (4) , R. Leoni (23) , A. Loose (19) , D. Maschietti , S. Massetti (1) , F. Mattioli (23) , G. Miller (2) , D. Moissenko (15) , A. Morbidini (1) , R. Noschese (1) , F. Nuccilli (1) , C. Nunez (2) , N. Paschalidis (8) , S. Persyn (2) , D. Piazza (28) , M. Oja (5) , J. Rynö (33) , W. Schmidt (33) , J. A. Scheer , A. Shestakov (15) , S. Shuvalov (15) , K. Seki (34) , S. Selci (23) , K. Smith (2) , R. Sordini (1) , J. Svensson (35) , L. Szalai (14) , D. Toublanc (11) , C. Urdiales (2) , A. Varsani (4) , N. Vertolli (1) , R. Wallner (4) , P. Wahlstroem (28) , P. Wilson (2) , S. Sampieri (1)

1 IAPS - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF
2 SwRI - Southwest Research Institute [San Antonio]
3 CLaSP - Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering
4 IWF - Space Research Institute of Austrian Academy of Sciences
5 IRF - Swedish Institute of Space Physics [Kiruna]
6 Italian Space Agency
7 APL - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory [Laurel, MD]
8 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
9 Physics Institute [Bern]
10 HELIOS - LATMOS
11 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
12 Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering [Espoo]
13 Space Technology Ireland Limited
14 Wigner Research Centre for Physics [Budapest]
15 IKI - Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
16 Department of Physics [Athens]
17 PPPL - Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
18 RSSD - Research and Scientific Support Department, ESTEC
19 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung
20 OAT - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste
21 IWF - Institut für Weltraumforschung = Space Research institute [Graz]
22 LASP - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics [Boulder]
23 IFN - CNR Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies
24 OAPD - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
25 CNR-ISM - Istituto di Struttura della Materia
26 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
27 CNEA - Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica [ARGENTINA]
28 Physikalisches Institut [Bern]
29 Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences [Aberystwyth]
30 University of Arizona
31 MS - Department of Materials Science and Engineering [Charlottesville]
32 LPP - Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas
33 FMI - Finnish Meteorological Institute
34 Department of Earth and Planetary Science [Tokyo]
35 EISCAT Scientific Association [Sweden]

The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury will provide simultaneous measurements from two spacecraft, offering an unprecedented opportunity to investigate magnetospheric and exospheric particle dynamics at Mercury as well as their interactions with solar wind, solar radiation, and interplanetary dust. The particle instrument suite SERENA (Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundances) is flying in space on-board the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and is the only instrument for ion and neutral particle detection aboard the MPO. It comprises four independent sensors: ELENA for neutral particle flow detection, Strofio for neutral gas detection, PICAM for planetary ions observations, and MIPA, mostly for solar wind ion measurements. SERENA is managed by a System Control Unit located inside the ELENA box. In the present paper the scientific goals of this suite are described, and then the four units are detailed, as well as their major features and calibration results. Finally, the SERENA operational activities are shown during the orbital path around Mercury, with also some reference to the activities planned during the long cruise phase.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Stefano Orsini, S. A. Livi, H. Lichtenegger, S. Barabash, A. Milillo, et al.. SERENA: Particle Instrument Suite for Determining the Sun-Mercury Interaction from BepiColombo. Space Science Reviews, 2021, 217 (1), pp.11. ⟨10.1007/s11214-020-00787-3⟩. ⟨insu-03108958⟩