Energetic Neutral Atom Maps from the "Croissant-like" Heliosphere
Abstract
The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) and future missions such as IMAP are (and will be) probing the global structure of the heliosphere using energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). Works such as that of Zirnstein et al. (2017) and Kornbleuth et al. (2018) have modeled ENAs from 3D global models of the heliosphere. These models are magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models, which include thermal solar wind ions and pick-up ions (PUIs) as a single ion fluid. To account for the several PUIs populations in producing ENA maps, it is necessary to make several assumptions from the single ion MHD model. Recently we extended our single ion model to treat the PUIs and thermal solar wind ions as separate fluids (Opher et al. 2018). Here we present ENA maps from our old 3D single-ion MHD model as well as the new multi-ion model. With this new model there are no assumptions regarding the transmitted PUIs (the PUIs created in the supersonic solar wind), where the extinction with distance is included self-consistently. The new multi-ion model predicts a smaller and rounder heliosphere. As with the old single ion model, the heliosheath plasma is collimated by the solar magnetic field (Opher et al. 2015). We will compare the ENA maps from these two models while using a latitudinally varying solar wind profile (similar to solar minimum).
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMSH33C3664K
- Keywords:
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- 2126 Heliosphere/interstellar medium interactions;
- INTERPLANETARY PHYSICSDE: 6015 Dust;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: COMETS AND SMALL BODIESDE: 6224 Kuiper belt objects;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTSDE: 6285 Trans-Neptunian objects;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS