Comparison between our hybrid simulations and MESSENGER observations along the trajectory of MESSENGER on 14 January 2008 during the M1 flyby. The format of the presented results is the same as that shown in Fig. 4. Panel f: upstream solar wind speed |u_sw | =365 km s⁻¹ and solar wind plasma density n_sw = 32 cm⁻³. Panel g: plasma counts observed during the M1 flyby by the FIPS instrument on MESSENGER, digitized from Fig. 3 in Raines et al. (2011).