HR: 0800h
AN: SH51A-1202    [Abstracts]
TI: Topical problems in the global modeling of the solar wind interaction with the local interstellar medium.
AU: * Pogorelov, N V
EM: nikolaip@ucr.edu
AF: Istitute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521 United States
AU: Zank, G P
EM: zank@ucr.edu
AF: Istitute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521 United States
AU: Ogino, T
EM: ogino@stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp
AF: Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Honohara 3-13, Toyokawa, Aichi, 442-8507 Japan
AB: Physical aspects are investigated of the solar wind (SW) interaction with the local interstellar medium (LISM) for various solar wind conditions. The effects of the slow-fast SW region separation in the context of the Sun's 11-year activity cycle are discussed. The consequences of a tilt between Sun's magnetic and rotational axes and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) polarity reversals are modelled on the basis of a multi-fluid, MHD--neutral physical model. Special attention is paid to the termination shock response to realistic solar wind variations and its relation to the Voyager 1 data. We show by direct numerical simulation that IMF lines do intersect the termination shock multiple times for most of the interstellar magnetic field orientations with respect to Sun's magnetic axis and the LISM velocity vector. Physical reasons are discussed that lead to the deflection of the interstellar neutral hydrogen flow from the direction of propagation of neutral helium in the inner heliosheath. On the basis of numerical simulations, the possibilities are investigated for deriving the orientation of the interstellar magnetic field as a function of the deflection angle. Parameters are determined that affect the divergence between the LISM neutral hydrogen and neutral helium velocity vectors: strength and direction of the interstellar magnetic field, and the density of the neutral hydrogen in the unperturbed LISM. Both superfast and subfast, superslow LISM flow regimes are investigated, all resulting in the termination shock distances to the Sun agreeable with that determined by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. Conditions are formulated that might allow us to use the SOHO SWAN experiment on the neutral hydrogen velocity orientation as an interstellar magnetic compass.
DE: 2109 Discontinuities (7811)
DE: 2124 Heliopause and solar wind termination
DE: 2126 Heliosphere/interstellar medium interactions
DE: 2134 Interplanetary magnetic fields
DE: 2162 Solar cycle variations (7536)
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005