Radiative transfer in the interplanetary medium at Lyman alpha

Details Radiative transfer in the interplanetary medium at Lyman alpha Radiative transfer in the interplanetary medium at Lyman alpha

Sep 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993a%26a...277..283q&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 277, p. 283 (1993)

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

32

Radiative Transfer - Interplanetary Lyman Α - Interstellar Wind

Scientific paper

We present here a method used to solve the transfer equation in the interplanetary medium at Lyman α for realistic distributions of atomic hydrogen. To compute the source function in the heliosphere, we have combined an iterative numerical solution for small values of optical depth from the sun with a Monte Carlo simulation of radiative transfer at large optical depth. The intensity can then be computed by integration of the source function along the line of sight, taking into account extinction.
It is shown that radiative transfer effects on the source function are quite large, with a maximum increase in the downwind region, depending on the interstellar and solar parameters. The discrepancy between backscattered intensities computed using radiative transfer or optically thin approximation can also reach 40 % in the downwind cavity, even at a few AU from the sun. As a consequence, the solar and interstellar parameters inferred from the study of Lyman α glow must be reconsidered to take this effect into account. The upwind to downwind intensity ratio computed at 1 AU from the sun is strongly modified as well as the radial dependence of radial antisolar intensities. The line width of the backscattered Lyman α profile is increased by multiple scattering (14 % for n∞ =O.1 cm-3), thus modifying the temperature inferred from optically thin approximation by 30 % at 0.1 cm-3. Finally, it is shown that methods to estimate the lifetime at 1 AU of a hydrogen atom, by studying the maximum emissivity region (MER), are little affected by radiative transfer calculations.

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