The Fate of the Helium Polar Wind in the Magnetosphere and its Implications on the Terrestrial Helium Budget

Details The Fate of the Helium Polar Wind in the Magnetosphere and its Implications on the Terrestrial Helium Budget The Fate of the Helium Polar Wind in the Magnetosphere and its Implications on the Terrestrial Helium Budget

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm33b1905y&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM33B-1905

Physics

[2431] Ionosphere / Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions, [2736] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

Helium ions constitute a minor but non-negligible component of the observed polar wind and auroral ion outflow populations, and their escape from the polar ionosphere via the polar wind was first proposed by the late Sir Ian Axford as a possible mechanism for the attrition of atmospheric helium and the resulting balance of the terrestrial helium budget. Using the observed helium ion data on Akebono and particle trajectory tracing of the observed ions, we analyze the distribution of helium ion flux in the different regions of the magnetosphere under a range of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and geomagnetic activity conditions, and estimate the corresponding amount of atmospheric helium loss through the polar wind. The fraction of escaping helium in the polar wind is ˜50-80% and corresponds to a loss rate of ˜(3-5) × 1024 helium atoms s-1; this rate is comparable to the estimated atmospheric helium production rate in the literature, which is ˜6.5(±3) × 1024 s-1, and could conceivably account for the current terrestrial helium budget.

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