Interstellar atom and neutral solar wind observations from IMAGE

Details Interstellar atom and neutral solar wind observations from IMAGE Interstellar atom and neutral solar wind observations from IMAGE

May 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agusmsh32c..01m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2002, abstract #SH32C-01

Physics

2124 Heliopause And Solar Wind Termination, 2129 Interplanetary Dust, 2144 Interstellar Gas

Scientific paper

Designed for observations of low energy neutral atoms generated by plasma heating in the Earth's ionosphere, the low energy neutral atom imager (LENA) has also made direct observations of interstellar neutral atoms and of a neutral atom component of the solar wind. Orbiting in a 8 x 1.15 Re polar orbit, IMAGE and LENA have operated since May 2000, and have sampled these populations on time scales as short as the spacecraft spin period of 2 minutes. The interstellar neutral atoms have been observed for several weeks in each of two consecutive winter seasons in the region downstream of the interstellar flow. The observed flux reveals the Helium focusing cone structure, with the ions actually detected having been created by sputtering from impact on the coated, polished Tungsten conversion surface. The neutral solar wind component is observed to be modulated on time scales as short as the fluctuations associated with passing CME structures. This owes largely to a component created by charge exchange with the outer geocorona. A large (factor of 100) annual variation in the neutral solar wind flux is thought to result from depletion of the interstellar gas in the downstream cavity created by solar photo-ionization and charge exchange [Collier et al., poster session]. Inferred characteristics of the interstellar gas and dust distribution in the inner heliosphere will be summarized for comparison with theoretical models.

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