Heliospheric ENA fluxes: How Sensitive Are They to the Ionization State of LIC? |
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| Authors: | Vlad Izmodenov Mike Gruntman Vladimir Baranov Hans Fahr |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Aeromechanics, Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Moscow State Uinversity, Moscow, 119899, Russia;(2) University of Southern California, Los Angeles, U.S.A.;(3) Institute for Problems in Mechanics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia;(4) Institut fur Astrophysik, Universitat Bonn, Germany |
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| Abstract: | We explore the sensitivity of the fluxes of heliospheric energetic neutral atoms (ENA) at 1 AU to the ionization state of
the local interstellar cloud (LIC). The solar wind plasma is compressed and heated in the termination shock transition. The
shocked solar plasma is convected toward the heliospheric tail in the heliosheath, the region between the termination shock
and the heliopause. The ENAs are produced in charge exchange of the plasma protons and background neutral gas and can be readily
detected at 1 AU. The expected ENA fluxes depend on the shocked plasma density, temperature, and velocity in the heliosheath.
The size and structure of the heliospheric interface region depend on the parameters of the interstellar medium. ENA fluxes
would thus reveal the LIC parameters. We demonstrate the sensitivity of the heliospheric ENA fluxes to the ionization state
of the LIC. The axi-symmetric model of the solar wind/LIC interaction includes the self-consistent treatment of the plasma-gas
coupling and Monte Carlo simulations of the neutral gas distribution.
This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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