Review of Mercury's Dynamic Magnetosphere: Post-MESSENGER Era and Comparative Magnetospheres
Weijie Sun, Ryan M. Dewey, Sae Aizawa, Jia Huang, James A. Slavin,, Suiyan Fu, Yong Wei, Charles F. Bowers

TL;DR
This review synthesizes current knowledge of Mercury's magnetosphere post-MESSENGER, compares it with other planets, and discusses future research opportunities with the upcoming BepiColombo mission.
Contribution
It provides a comprehensive overview of Mercury's magnetospheric dynamics, including recent findings and open questions, especially in light of new data from the MESSENGER mission and upcoming BepiColombo.
Findings
Frequent magnetic reconnection events depend on plasma beta and magnetic shear.
Mercury's magnetosphere responds dynamically to extreme solar events.
Particle energization mechanisms include Kelvin-Helmholtz waves and magnetic reconnection structures.
Abstract
This review summarizes the research of Mercury's magnetosphere in the Post-MESSENGER era and compares its dynamics to those in other planetary magnetospheres, especially to those in Earth's magnetosphere. This review starts by introducing the planet Mercury, including its interplanetary environment, magnetosphere, exosphere, and conducting core. The frequent and intense magnetic reconnection on the dayside magnetopause, which is represented by the flux transfer event "shower", is reviewed on how they depend on magnetosheath plasma beta and magnetic shear angle across the magnetopause, following by how they contribute to the flux circulation and magnetosphere-surface-exosphere coupling. In the next, the progress of Mercury's magnetosphere under extreme solar events, including the core induction and the reconnection erosion on the dayside magnetosphere, the responses of the nightside…
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