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

International audienceThe 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

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

International audienc

Correction to: SERENA: Particle Instrument Suite for Determining the Sun-Mercury Interaction from BepiColombo (Space Science Reviews, (2021), 217, 1, (11), 10.1007/s11214-020-00787-3)

The original online version of this article was revised because a number of authors had the wrong affiliation number next to their names. © 2021, Springer Nature B.V

Inner southern magnetosphere observation of Mercury via SERENA ion sensors in BepiColombo mission

International audienceIn this study we present the observation of Mercury's inner southern magnetosphere and surrounding regions, never previously explored, as detected by the two ion sensors of the instrument package: 'Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundances' (SERENA), named 'Planetary Ion CAMera' (PICAM) and 'Miniaturized Ion Precipitation Analyzer' (MIPA), on board BepiColombo mission during the first Mercury flyby, on 1 st October 2021. Here we show the analysis of the data acquired during this flyby, a glimpse of what we will get from the nominal mission: in particular we observe and describe specific ion features nearby and inside the Hermean environment, like: intermittent high energy signal due to an interplanetary magnetic flux rope; magnetospheric ions with different energy drifting at low altitudes above the planet and determining specific plasma regimes; ion signals detected outside the magnetosphere at low energy