Pickup Ion Distributions at the Termination Shock: A Numerical Study for IBEX

Details Pickup Ion Distributions at the Termination Shock: A Numerical Study for IBEX Pickup Ion Distributions at the Termination Shock: A Numerical Study for IBEX

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsh21b1514k&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SH21B-1514

Physics

Plasma Physics

[7837] Space Plasma Physics / Neutral Particles, [7845] Space Plasma Physics / Particle Acceleration, [7851] Space Plasma Physics / Shock Waves, [7867] Space Plasma Physics / Wave/Particle Interactions

Scientific paper

The termination shock forms when the solar wind encounters the interstellar material. Due to the interaction with the interstellar material the supersonic solar wind become subsonic at this boundary. Numerical simulations and theoretical considerations suggested that the dynamic of the termination shock is highly mediated by pickup ions. This has been recently confirmed by Voyager observations. In fact these in-situ observations show that suprathermal ions in the heliosheath probably originate as solar wind pickup ions that are accelerated and/or heated, at the termination shock and in the heliosheath. IBEX measurements reveal of the global structure of the termination shock and the flow patterns in different regions of the heliosheath and the heliotail. These observations will also identify regions of particle acceleration at the termination shock and probe the interstellar interaction beyond the heliopause. Due to charge exchange of interstellar ions with solar wind ions energetic neutral atoms (ENA’s) are created, which can be detected by the two IBEX sensors. Numerical simulations and theoretical considerations can provide new insights into the micro-physics that leads to acceleration of ions, and in turn to acceleration of ENA’s, by comparing the observed ENA spectra with simulation results. In this presentation we will focus on a study of specific regions of the 3D ENA maps from IBEX with enhanced ENA flux. For these regions we performed self-consistent multi-species (solar wind and pickup ions) 2D-hybrid simulations to study the spatial and temporal evolution of the distributions of the various ion populations. As input for these hybrid simulations we have used MHD simulations results for the magnetic field and plasma beta and theoretical predictions for at pickup ions density for the selected regions. Furthermore, we will present first results from a study that relates the simulated turbulence (at the MHD and the kinetic scale) at the shock and downstream with acceleration of ions and ENA’s by comparing the simulated ENA spectrum with IBEX observations

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