{"paper":{"title":"Sodium and Potassium Linewidths as an Atmospheric Escape Diagnostic at Mercury","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.EP","authors_text":"Carl Schmidt, Patrick Lierle","submitted_at":"2025-05-29T18:08:50Z","abstract_excerpt":"The spatial distribution and linewidth of Mercury's sodium and potassium exosphere were observed using a combination of long-slit and high-resolution point spectroscopy. Effective temperatures were estimated from emission line profiles by forward modeling their Doppler broadening. These serve as an energy metric for collisionless gas that is inherently nonthermal. The Na gas at low and mid-latitudes ranges from 1200-1300 K along the noon meridian, in agreement with MESSENGER scale heights, increasing by ~200 K at the poles and terminator. This increase is attributed to the loss of low energy a"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2505.23915","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2505.23915/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}