News & events

MEOW spring seminar (May 13, 2026)

Spring seminar of the Mercury in the solar wind (MEOW) project. We discuss our modelling studies of Mercury's magnetospheric solar wind interaction, model development, and the status and particle observations on the BepiColombo mission.

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Program

• 12:30 Talks
• 14:00 Refreshments and discussion
• 15:00 Closing

Talks

• Riku Järvinen (FMI): Global hybrid modelling of Mercury's magnetosphere ahead of BepiColombo orbit insertion
• Mikko Borg (FMI): Estimation of extreme electron fluxes at geostationary orbit: a statistical approach
• Liam Edwards (Univ. Helsinki): Overview of SIXS-P Observations During BepiColombo's Mercury Flybys
• Samuel Grant (FMI): Investigation of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability at Mercury using the RHybrid model - Implications for BepiColombo observations
• David Phillips (FMI): Mercury's ion foreshock and ultra-low frequency waves under different upstream conditions in a global hybrid model
• Ilja Honkonen (FMI): Adaptive timestep and mesh in a hybrid particle-in-cell model of Mercury's magnetosphere using the AMReX framework

EGU26 is here! (May 3, 2026)

We'll participate in the EGU General Assembly 2026 in Austria Center Vienna. Welcome all to the Mercury session: On the Quest to Solve Mercury's Secrets!

Our presentation:

• Jarvinen+: Interpreting BepiColombo's observations of Mercury's solar wind interaction with global hybrid-particle simulations
  Wed, May 6, 14:00–18:00 (CEST), Hall X4, poster X4.117

BepiColombo SWT#26 meeting (Apr 10, 2026)

The MEOW project participates and presents our ongoing studies at the 26th Science Working Team meeting of the BepiColombo mission at the Hokkaido University in Sapporo. This will be a week of intense mission-wide collaborations, awesome planetary science as well as planning for the arrival at Mercury in about half a year!

BepiColombo/SERENA team meeting (Mar 17, 2026)

We presented our ongoing global hybrid modelling studies in the MEOW project at the 8th team meeting of the SERENA (Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundances) instrument package on BepiColombo. Four days of very stimulating discussions of Mercury's complex, coupled exosphere-magnetosphere environment at the Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics in the University of Firenze.

Moa Persson visiting (Feb 16, 2026)

Moa Persson from Uppsala University visits the MEOW team. An exciting week-long science intensive on Mercury's magnetospheric waves in light of MESSENGER observations and global hybrid modelling as well as the upcoming BepiColombo PWI/MEFISTO observations!

iPIC3D meeting (Feb 4, 2026)

MEOW participates in the conference on the full-kinetic iPIC3D particle plasma model at KU Leuven, Belgium.

Modelling Astrophysical Plasmas with iPIC3D: First Conference on Implicit PIC Simulations and Beyond

(call closed) We are reqruiting: PhD position (Dec 1, 2025)

Doctoral researcher (PhD student) position in our team to study Mercury's space plasma physics and/or to develop high-perfomance computing methods (call closed).

BepiColombo/SIXS in Finland seminar (Nov 25, 2025)

Seminar on the history, designing, building, current status and science of BepiColombo's Finnish-lead Solar Intensity X-ray and particle Spectrometer (SIXS) instrument.

Program

• 15:00 – 15:30: Coffee
• 15:30 – 17:00: Talks
• 17:00 – Refreshments and informal discussions

Talks

• Emilia Kilpua (University of Helsinki): BepiColombo mission status & next steps
• Juhani Huovelin (Isaware): History of SIXS
• Rami Vainio (University of Turku): How did SIXS become also a particle instrument?
• Maria Genzer (Finnish Meteorological Institute): A project manager’s view
• Jussi Lehti (ASTRO): SIXS-P Development at ASRO
• Hans Andersson (Oxford Instruments Technologies Oy): SIXS Sensor Unit Design and AIT
• Liam Edwards (University of Helsinki): SIXS energetic particle observations during BepiColombo's flybys
• Karri Muinonen (University of Helsinki): Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer MIXS
• Riku Järvinen (Finnish Meteorological Institute): Mercury’s space weather and modeling

BepiColombo SWT #25 (Oct 27, 2025)

BepiColombo Science Working Team number 25 and a week full of exciting Mercury science collaborations and planning at European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) near Madrid.

European Space Weather Week (Oct 27, 2025)

MEOW participation at ESWW2025 in Umeå, Sweden!

Our presentation:

• Honkonen+: On enhancing parallel global hybrid-particle model with temporal substepping and adaptive mesh refinement
  Thu-Fri

EPSC-DPS 2025 in Helsinki, welcome colleagues! (Aug 27, 2025)

The MEOW team will participate in the EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025 here in Helsinki, Finland!

Warmly welcome all collegues and friends for a week of great Mercury and planetary science in our project's home city!

We'll have a big Mercury session: On the Quest to Solve Mercury's Secrets

Our presentations:

• Phillips+: Global hybrid-particle simulations of Mercury's ion foreshock and ULF waves
  Thu, Sep 11, 18:00–19:30 (EEST), Finlandia Hall foyer, poster F66
• Honkonen+: On enhancing parallel global hybrid-particle model with run-time adaptive mesh refinement and temporal substepping
  Thu, Sep 11, 18:00–19:30 (EEST), Finlandia Hall foyer, poster F67
• Jarvinen+: Global hybrid-particle modelling of Mercury’s space plasma environment and BepiColombo observations
  Thu, Sep 11, 18:00–19:30 (EEST), Finlandia Hall foyer, poster F68

AP-RASC 2025 (Aug 5, 2025)

MEOW presentation at the URSI Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference 2025, Sydney, Austria

• Jarvinen+: Mercury's Magnetospheric Solar Wind Interaction in a Global Hybrid Simulation
  Tue, Aug 19, 14:10–14:30 (CEST), Room C3.5

Hello EGU25 and Vienna! (Apr 26, 2025)

The MEOW team will participate in the EGU General Assembly 2025 in Wien, Austria

Our presentations:

• Jarvinen+: Solar wind coupling with magnetospheres of terrestrial planets
  Tue, Apr 29, 08:30–08:50 (CEST), Room 1.34
• Honkonen+: Platform of adaptive algorithms for global simulations of planetary space weather
  Thu, May 1, 16:15–18:00 (CEST), Hall X4, poster X4.142
• Phillips+: Plasma waves in a global ion-kinetic hybrid simulation for Mercury's space weather
  Thu, May 1, 16:15–18:00 (CEST), Hall X4, poster X4.143

(call closed) We are hiring! (Mar 10, 2025)

3-year postdoc position in our team to study Mercury's space plasma physics (call closed).

Kick-off seminar (Feb 14, 2025)

Kick-off seminar of the Mercury in the solar wind (MEOW) ERC Consolidator Grant project. We discuss space weather in light of the European-Japanese BepiColombo mission and the development of our space plasma simulation tools.

Friday, Feb 14, 2025

• 12:30 Riku Järvinen (FMI): Mercury in the solar wind, the BepiColombo mission and our global particle-based space weather modeling
• 13:00 Ilja Honkonen (FMI): Generic programming and adaptive methods in space weather modeling
• 13:30 David Phillips (FMI): From relativistic MHD to hybrid simulation development
• 14:00 Refreshments and discussion
• 15:00 Closing

Significant funding for space weather research at Finnish Meteorological Institute (Feb 2, 2024)

European Research Council awarded competetive ERC Consolidator Grant funding to Riku Järvinen's project at Finnish Meteorological Institute. The grant is for five years and approximately two million euros. The project improves our understanding of space weather.

• Press release