A Soft X-Ray Imager for the Earth's Magnetosphere

Details A Soft X-Ray Imager for the Earth's Magnetosphere A Soft X-Ray Imager for the Earth's Magnetosphere

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm51b2063s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM51B-2063

Physics

[2154] Interplanetary Physics / Planetary Bow Shocks, [2724] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetopause And Boundary Layers, [2728] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetosheath, [2794] Magnetospheric Physics / Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

Highly-charged solar wind ions and exospheric neutrals exchange electrons to produce not only energetic neutrals but also soft X-rays (0.07 to 2 keV) within the foreshock, magnetosheath, and cusps. The transient and steady-state processes within these regions that govern the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetosphere also generate characteristic density structures. By detecting enhanced emissions along lines-of-sight that pass through higher density regions, a soft X-ray imager with a wide field-of-view on a highly elliptical orbit will provide the observations needed to define the instantaneous density structure of the dayside regions. Calculations based on prior observations of soft X-ray emissions from narrow field-of-view astrophysics telescopes indicate that an imager 30 RE from Earth will be able to resolve magnetosheath structures with dimensions of ~0.5 RE on time scales of ~1 min, with both resolution and cadence improving as solar wind ion fluxes increase. Potential research topics include the locations and motion of the bow shock, magnetopause, and cusps, the nature of the bow shock and magnetopause transitions, and the location and motion of the cusps as a function of solar wind conditions.

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