MERTIS – MErcury Radiometer and Thermal infrared Imaging Spectrometer

Kurzfassung

The MErcury Radiometer and Thermal infrared Imaging Spectrometer (MERTIS) [1] is part of the payload of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter spacecraft of the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission that will be launched in October 2018. MERTIS combines an imaging spectrometer covering the wavelength range from 7-14 μm with a radiometer covering the wavelength range from 7 to 40 μm. The instrument will map the whole surface of Mercury with a spatial resolution of 500m for the spectrometer channel and 2km for the radiometer channel. The compositional map of Mercury provided by MERTIS will allow unique insights into the evolution of the least explored terrestrial planet. MERTIS will also address directly questions raised by the NASA MESSENGER mission. For example we will be able to provide spatially re-solved compositional information on the hollows and pyroclastic deposits and answer the question whether hollows are actually predominately sulfide deposits.