The Spherical Bolometric Albedo of Planet Mercury

TL;DR

This paper determines Mercury's spherical bolometric albedo by analyzing reflectance data across 0-4 μm, revealing a higher value than previous estimates and calculating an effective temperature of 436.3 K.

Contribution

It provides a new, comprehensive measurement of Mercury's bolometric albedo covering nearly all solar wavelengths, improving previous estimates.

Findings

Bolometric albedo of 0.088 ± 0.003 for Mercury

Higher reflectivity beyond 1.01 μm compared to previous studies

Effective blackbody temperature of Mercury is 436.3 K

Abstract

Published reflectance data covering several different wavelength intervals has been combined and analyzed in order to determine the spherical bolometric albedo of Mercury. The resulting value of 0.088 +/- 0.003 spans wavelengths from 0 to 4 {\mu}m which includes over 99% of the solar flux. This bolometric result is greater than the value determined between 0.43 and 1.01 {\mu}m by Domingue et al. (2011, Planet. Space Sci., 59, 1853-1872). The difference is due to higher reflectivity at wavelengths beyond 1.01 {\mu}m. The average effective blackbody temperature of Mercury corresponding to the newly determined albedo is 436.3 K. This temperature takes into account the eccentricity of the planet's orbit (M\'endez and Rivera-Valet\'in. 2017. ApJL, 837, L1).