LatHyS hybrid simulation of the August, 10 2021 BepiColombo Venus flyby
Abstract
The 2nd Venus flyby of BepiColombo has been examined and compared by the newly developed global hybrid simulation LatHyS for the Venusian environment. The LatHyS has been first validated by comparison with Venus Express observations, then using the observation from Solar Orbiter, which was located in the upstream region and both observed the same solar wind, it is applied for the Venus flyby. The simulation successfully reproduced the observed signatures and it shows that BepiColombo passed through the stagnation region of Venus, which supports the results obtained by data-analysis. In addition, we have sampled the plasma information along the trajectory and constructed the energy spectrum for three species (solar wind proton, planetary proton, and planetary oxygen ion) and possible effect due to the limited field of view is discussed. Moreover, ion escape from Venus for planetary species have been discussed and the escape rate is estimated.