{"id":39,"date":"2025-01-17T12:23:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T12:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/musec\/?page_id=39"},"modified":"2026-05-10T09:25:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T09:25:02","slug":"project-plan","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/musec\/project-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The proposed team is composed of experts in different fields<\/strong>, all relevant to the study of exosphere-surface interaction. The team has been selected to encompass the different relevant dimensional scales<\/strong>. Theoretical experts on global exospheres and planetary surfaces will identify key gaps\/assumptions in their models, providing focus to experimentalists and atomistic modelers. In return, the outputs of experiments and MD models will be used as inputs into preexisting global exospheric models developed by core team members.<\/span><\/p>\n

The exosphere experts of the team have already developed and validated global exosphere models<\/strong>, including the treatment of gas-surface interactions and subsurface diffusion. Based on these outputs and on the existing observations of the exospheres, the relevant parameters to the ejection processes can be highlighted. Surface experts will challenge the hypothesis made on gas-surface interactions and will provide insights on local differentiation effects of surface\/subsurface compositions on the exospheres.<\/span><\/p>\n

As some MD simulations regarding gas-surface interactions<\/strong> have already been developed by team members, the first objective for this part of the team will be to reproduce already published experiments to validate their approach. The experimentalists in the team have been selected as they are already working on relevant experiments and have all the necessary equipment to study newly suggested setups. This sort of approach allows for cross validation<\/strong> while also providing the unique outputs that can only be acquired by their approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

The team will meet once a year for a 1-week in-person meeting at ISSI in Bern, between Fall 2024 and Summer 2026. Before and in between these two meetings, monthly online meetings will be organized, with a longer kick-off format in Autumn 2024. Each of these monthly meetings will have a focus topic: exospheres, granular modelling, atomistic modelling, and relevant experiments. These have been organized using a top down approach such that the needs for each model can provide focus for modelers at lower dimensional scales.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first in-person meeting took place from the 24th to the 28th of February 2025.<\/strong> This first meeting consisted in a series of presentations from all team members, organized per field over 3 days, followed by 2 days of discussions and planning of the focused directions the team should follow.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second meeting will take place in May 2026<\/strong>. This meeting will be more focused on discussions around the identified improvements made by the team over the duration of the project. Relevant presentations of each field will be prepared with connecting bridges<\/strong> that would have been highlighted between the atomic and planetary scales in the exospheres formation processes.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Publications :<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n
    Verkercke, S., Berhanu, D., Bu, C., Clouter-Gergen, B., Leblanc, F., Lewis, J. R., … & Savin, D. W. (2026). Theoretical ion sputtering yields from loose powders using a multiscale Monte Carlo approach. Journal of Applied Physics<\/i>, 139<\/i>(14).<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  2. M. H. Burger, R. M. Killen, R. J. Vervack, Jr., O. J. Tucker, L. S. Morrissey, and D. W. Savin (2025)\u00a0Seasonal Effects of the Changing Photon Scattering Rates on Mercury’s Exospheric Structure. Planet. Sci. J.<\/i> 6<\/b>, 262.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Georgiou, A.<\/span>, Huang, Z.<\/span>, Yeo, L. H.<\/span>, Farrell, W.<\/span>, Verkercke, S.<\/span>, Lewis, J. R.<\/span>, et al. (2025<\/span>). Effect of solar wind and micrometeoroid impact on the lunar water cycle: A molecular dynamics study<\/span>. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets<\/i>, 130<\/span>, e2024JE008687. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1029\/2024JE008687<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Georgiou, A., Ricketts, A., McLain, J., Verkercke, S., Leblanc, F., Sarantos, M., & Morrissey, L. S. (2025). Atomic-scale Insights into the Effects of Diffusion on the Binding of Adsorbed Sodium on the Surfaces of the Moon and Mercury. The Planetary Science Journal<\/i>, 6<\/i>(8), 205.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Morrissey, L. S., Lewis, J., Ricketts, A., Berhanu, D., Bu, C., Dong, C., … & Verkercke, S. (2025). Theoretical calculations on the effect of adsorbed atom coverage on the sodium exospheres of airless bodies. The Astrophysical Journal<\/i>, 981<\/i>(1), 73.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. O. J. Tucker, L. S. Morrissey, R. M. Killen, M. H. Burger, R. J. Vervack, Jr., and D. W. Savin (2025) Revisiting Electronic and Nuclear Sputtering from Ions at Mercury using Linear Cascade Theory. Planet. Sci. J.<\/i> 6<\/b>, 260.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Verkercke S. , Chaufray J. Y. , Leblanc F. , Georgiou A. , Phillips M. S. , Munaretto G. , Lewis J. , Ricketts A. , Morrissey L. (2025) A novel theoretical approach to predict the interannual variability of sulfur in Mercury\u2019s exosphere and subsurface, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, Volume 12 – 2025. DOI=10.3389\/fspas.2025.1565830<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Verkercke, S., Senel, C. B., Luther, R., Sarantos, M., Martellato, E., Collins, G. S., … & Claeys, P. (2025). A thermal origin to the asymmetry of the permanent dust cloud at the Moon. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets<\/i>, 130<\/i>(10), e2025JE009259.<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Verkercke, S., Morrissey, L., Chaufray, J. Y., Georgiou, A., Ricketts, A., & Leblanc, F. (2025). On the origins of Mercury’s sodium exospheric cold poles enhancement: A multiscale exosphere global model. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets<\/i>, 130<\/i>(11), e2025JE009309.<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. Verkercke, S., Leblanc, F., Chaufray, J. Y., Phillips, M. S., Munaretto, G., Caminiti, E., & Morrissey, L. (2025). Mercury’s hollows: A potential signature of sulfur exosphere\u2010subsurface transport. Geophysical Research Letters<\/i>, 52<\/i>(24), e2025GL118112.<\/span><\/li>\n
  11. P. Wurz, N. J\u00e4ggi, A. Galli, A. Vorburger, D. Domingue, P. S. Szabo, J. Benkhoff, O. Barraud, and D. W. Savin (2025)\u00a0The interplay of surface composition, mineralogy, and physical conditions that affect the surface release processes and particle environment of Mercury. Planet. Sci. J.<\/i> 6<\/b> 24 (2025).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The proposed team is composed of experts in different fields, all relevant to the study of exosphere-surface interaction. The team has been selected to encompass the different relevant dimensional scales. Theoretical experts on global exospheres and planetary surfaces will identify key gaps\/assumptions in their models, providing focus to experimentalists and atomistic modelers. In return, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-39","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/musec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/musec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/musec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/musec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/musec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/musec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100,"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/musec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39\/revisions\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teams.issibern.ch\/musec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}