Ke C. Hsieh

Viewing the outer heliosphere in energetic neutral atoms

Abstract The outer heliosphere is inaccessible for repeated in situ investigations. One can, however, sample the charged-particle populations of that remote region from the inner solar system, including from Earths orbit, by detecting the energetic neutral atoms produced by charge exchange between the energetic ions and the ambient neutral atoms. Fluxes of energetic neutral atoms emanating from the heliospheric interface region carry information on the thermalization of the solar-wind at the termination shock and the unmodulated anomalous cosmic rays, believed to be accelerated by the termination shock. We examine the techniques for viewing the outer heliosphere in energetic neutral atoms from within.

Elemental composition of the January 6, 1997, CME

Using solar wind particle data from the CELIAS/MTOF sensor on the SOHO mission, we studied the abundance of the elements O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ca, and Fe for the time period around the January 6, 1997, coronal mass ejection event (CME). In the interstream and coronal hole regions before and after this event we found elemental abundances consistent with the expected abundance patterns of the respective flow regimes. However, during the passage of the CME and during the passage of the erupted filament, which followed the CME, we found that the elemental composition differed markedly from the interstream and coronal hole regions before and after this event. During the passage of the CME and the passage of the erupted filament we found a mass-dependent element fractionation, with a monotonic increase toward heavier elements. We observed Si/O and Fe/O abundance ratios of about one half during these time periods, which is significantly higher than for typical solar wind.

Venus tail ray observation near Earth

In June, 1996, Venus passed through a very close inferior conjunction with the Sun. At that time the CTOF detector of the CELIAS mass spectrometer experiment on the SOHO spacecraft near Earths L1 Lagrangian point was measuring heavy ions in the solar wind ∼4.5 × 107 km downstream of Venus. Close to the time predicted by simple geometric arguments for passage of SOHO through the Venus wake, CTOF made three encounters with unusual fluxes of O+ and C+ ions. Their energy distributions resembled those of tail rays originating in the Venus ionosphere or ionopause region rather than of ions produced in the corona of neutral atoms that surrounds the planet. The C+ abundance was ≈ 10% of O+. The observed O+ speed was very close to the simultaneous solar wind speed and the O+ temperature was a cool 5600 K/amu. The flux densities for the three events were (2.4–4.4) × 10³ cm−2s−1.