308 research outputs found
Modulation of neutral interstellar He, Ne, O in the heliosphere. Survival probabilities and abundances at IBEX
Direct sampling of neutral interstellar (NIS) atoms by the Interstellar
Boundary Explorer (IBEX) can potentially provide a complementary method for
studying element abundances in the Local Interstellar Cloud and processes in
the heliosphere interface.}{We set the stage for abundance-aimed in-depth
analysis of measurements of NIS He, Ne, and O by IBEX and determine systematic
differences between abundances derived from various calculation methods and
their uncertainties.}{Using a model of ionization rates of the NIS species in
the heliosphere, based on independent measurements of the solar wind and solar
EUV radiation, we develop a time-dependent method of calculating the survival
probabilities of NIS atoms from the termination shock (TS) of the solar wind to
IBEX. With them, we calculate densities of these species along the Earth's
orbit and simulate the fluxes of NIS species as observed by IBEX. We study
pairwise ratios of survival probabilities, densities and fluxes of NIS species
at IBEX to calculate correction factors for inferring the abundances at
TS.}{The analytic method to calculate the survival probabilities gives
acceptable results only for He and Ne during low solar activity. For the
remaining portions of the solar cycle, and at all times for O, a fully time
dependent model should be used. Electron impact ionization is surprisingly
important for NIS O. Interpreting the IBEX observations using the time
dependent model yields the LIC Ne/O abundance of . The uncertainty
is mostly due to uncertainties in the ionization rates and in the NIS gas flow
vector.}{The Ne/He, O/He and Ne/O ratios for survival probabilities, local
densities, and fluxes scaled to TS systematically differ and thus an analysis
based only on survival probabilities or densities is not recommended, except
the Ne/O abundance for observations at low solar activity.Comment: Astronomy & Astrophysics, in press. Language and editing corrections
implemente
Energetic neutral atoms from the heliosheath as an additional population of neutral hydrogen in the inner heliosphere
Interstellar neutral hydrogen (ISN H) gas penetrates freely the heliopause.
Inside the inner heliosheath, the charge-exchange interaction of this gas with
the shocked solar wind and pickup ions creates energetic neutral atoms (ENAs).
ISN H is strongly depleted inside the termination shock but a fraction reaches
the Earth's orbit. In these regions of the heliosphere, ISN H is the source
population for interstellar pickup ions and for the heliospheric backscatter
glow. The Globally Distributed Flux (GDF) of ENAs created in the inner
heliosheath has been sampled directly by Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX).
Based on these measurements, we calculate the density of the GDF ENA population
at the Earth's orbit. We find that this number density is between and
cm, i.e., comparable in magnitude to the number density of ISN
H in the downwind portion of the Earth's orbit. Half of this atom population
have energies less than eV. This GDF population of neutral hydrogen
is likely to provide a significant contribution to the intensity of
heliospheric glow in the downwind hemisphere, may be the source of the inner
source of hydrogen pickup ions, and may be responsible for the excess of
production of pickup ions found in the analysis of magnetic wave events induced
by the proton pickup process in the downwind region at 1 au from the Sun.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap.
A possible generation mechanism for the IBEX ribbon from outside the heliosphere
The brightest and most surprising feature in the first all-sky maps of
Energetic Neutral Atoms (ENA) emissions (0.2-6 keV) produced by the
Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is an almost circular ribbon of a
~140{\deg} opening angle, centered at (l,b) = (33{\deg}, 55{\deg}), covering
the part of the celestial sphere with the lowest column densities of the Local
Interstellar Cloud (LIC). We propose a novel interpretation of the IBEX results
based on the idea of ENA produced by charge-exchange between the neutral H
atoms at the nearby edge of the LIC and the hot protons of the Local Bubble
(LB). These ENAs can reach the Sun's vicinity because of very low column
density of the intervening LIC material. We show that a plane-parallel or
slightly curved interface layer of contact between the LIC H atoms (n_H = 0.2
cm^-3, T = 6000-7000 K) and the LB protons (n_p = 0.005 cm^-3, T ~ 10^6 K),
together with indirect contribution coming from multiply-scattered ENAs from
the LB, may be able to explain both the shape of the ribbon and the observed
intensities provided that the edge is < (500-2000) AU away, the LIC proton
density is (correspondingly) < (0.04-0.01) cm^-3, and the LB contains ~1% of
non-thermal protons over the IBEX energy range. If this model is correct, then
IBEX, for the first time, has imaged in ENAs a celestial object from beyond the
confines of the heliosphere and can directly diagnose the plasma conditions in
the LB.Comment: Accepted by Ap.J.Lett
Neutral interstellar He parameters in front of the heliosphere 1994--2007
Analysis of IBEX measurements of neutral interstellar He flux brought the
inflow velocity vector different from the results of earlier analysis of
observations from GAS/Ulysses. Recapitulation of results on the helium inflow
direction from the past ~40 years suggested that the inflow direction may be
changing with time. We reanalyze the old Ulysses data and reprocess them to
increase the accuracy of the instrument pointing to investigate if the GAS
observations support the hypothesis that the interstellar helium inflow
direction is changing. We employ a similar analysis method as in the analysis
of the IBEX data. We seek a parameter set that minimizes reduced chi-squared,
using the Warsaw Test Particle Model for the interstellar He flux at Ulysses
with a state of the art model of neutral He ionization in the heliosphere, and
precisely reproducing the observation conditions. We also propose a
supplementary method of constraining the parameters based on cross-correlations
of parameters obtained from analysis of carefully selected subsets of data. We
find that the ecliptic longitude and speed of interstellar He are in a very
good agreement with the values reported in the original GAS analysis. We find,
however, that the temperature is markedly higher. The 3-seasons optimum
parameter set is lambda = 255.3, beta = 6, v = 26.0 km/s, T = 7500 K. We find
no evidence that it is varying with time, but the uncertainty range is larger
than originally reported. The originally-derived parameters of interstellar He
from GAS are in good agreement with presently derived, except for the
temperature, which seems to be appreciably higher, in good agreement with
interstellar absorption line results. While the results of the present analysis
are in marginal agreement with the earlier reported results from IBEX, the most
likely values from the two analyses differ for reasons that are still not
understood.Comment: submitted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic
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