Penetration of interstellar hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen atoms into the heliosphere through the solar wind-LIC interaction region

HR: 0830h
AN: SH11C-1124 [PDF]
TI: Penetration of interstellar hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen atoms into the heliosphere through the solar wind-LIC interaction region
AU: Malama, Y G
EM: malama@ipmnet.ru
AF: Institute for Problems in Mechanics Russian Academy of Sciences, Prospekt Vernadskogo 101-1, Moscow, 119526 Russian Federation
AU: * Izmodenov, V
EM: izmod@ipmnet.ru
AF: Lomonosov Moscow State University, Department of Aeromechanics, Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Vorobevy Gory, Moscow, 119899 Russian Federation
AU: Gloeckler, G
EM: gg10@umail.umd.edu
AF: University of Maryland, Department of Physics and IPST, College Park, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Geiss, J
EM: geiss@issi.unibe.ch
AF: International Space Science Institute, Hallerstrasse 6, Bern, 3012 Switzerland
AB: We report on our study of the filtration of interstellar atoms of hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen in the interaction region between the solar wind and the local interstellar medium. Filtration has great importance for the determination of local interstellar abundances of these elements, which becomes now possible due to measurements of interstellar pickup ions by Ulysses, ACE and Cassini, and anomalous cosmic rays by Voyagers, Ulysses, ACE, SAMPEX and Wind. The filtration of the different elements depends on the level of their coupling with the plasma in the interaction region. We study the dependence of filtration on local interstellar proton and H atom number densities and evaluate the role of charge exchange and electron impact ionization on filtration. We explore the effects of electron temperature in the inner heliosheath on the filtration process. Using our filtration coefficients and recent SWICS/Ulysses pickup ion measurements we determine local abundances of oxygen and nitrogen in the local interstellar medium.
DE: 2124 Heliopause and solar wind termination
DE: 2144 Interstellar gas
DE: 2151 Neutral particles
DE: 2152 Pickup ions
DE: 2162 Solar cycle variations (7536)
SC: SPA - Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting