Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

The Influence of Polar Coronal Holes on the Polar ENA Flux Observed by IBEX

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [2];  [5];  [6];  [2]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Polish Academy of Sciences (CBK PAN), Warsaw (Poland). Space Research Centre
  3. Univ. of Montana, Missoula, MT (United States)
  4. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States)
  5. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  6. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States). Space Science Center
+ Show Author Affiliations
Polar coronal holes (PCHs) fill the high-latitude heliosphere with fast solar wind during the minimum phase of the solar cycle. This leads to a hardening of the energy spectrum of the proton plasma in the inner heliosheath (IHS), observed as energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX). In particular, the highest-energy channel of the IBEX-Hi instrument (at 4.3 keV) is a very sensitive indicator of pretermination shock fast wind entering the IHS. Herein, we show that the 4.3 keV ENA flux observed from the ecliptic poles is well correlated with the area of the solar surface covered by PCHs throughout the solar cycle, which demonstrates the existence of a direct connection between coronal structure and the dynamic properties of the IHS.
Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Centre of Poland (NCN)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1601396
Report Number(s):
LA-UR--19-22264
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 879; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (35)

North-south asymmetry in global distribution of the solar wind speed during 1985-2013 journal May 2015
Using Polar Coronal Hole Area Measurements to Determine the Solar Polar Magnetic Field Reversal in Solar Cycle 24 journal May 2014
Reconstruction of Helio-Latitudinal Structure of the Solar Wind Proton Speed and Density journal September 2015
Relation Between Coronal Hole Areas and Solar Wind Speeds Derived from Interplanetary Scintillation Measurements journal February 2017
The IBEX-Lo Sensor journal May 2009
IBEX—Interstellar Boundary Explorer journal April 2009
The Interstellar Boundary Explorer High Energy (IBEX-Hi) Neutral Atom Imager journal April 2009
Physical Processes in the Outer Heliosphere journal June 2009
Relation between solar wind velocity and properties of its source region journal January 2005
Solar wind observations over Ulysses' first full polar orbit journal May 2000
Weaker solar wind from the polar coronal holes and the whole Sun journal January 2008
Bulk properties of the slow and fast solar wind and interplanetary coronal mass ejections measured by Ulysses: Three polar orbits of observations: THREE ORBITS OF ULYSSES OBSERVATIONS journal January 2009
Long-term evolution in the global distribution of solar wind speed and density fluctuations during 1997-2009: DISTRIBUTION OF SOLAR WIND TURBULENCE journal June 2012
Cool heliosheath plasma and deceleration of the upstream solar wind at the termination shock journal July 2008
Survival probability and energy modification of hydrogen energetic neutral atoms on their way from the termination shock to Earth orbit journal June 2008
Microstructure of the Heliospheric Termination Shock: Implications for Energetic Neutral atom Observations journal December 2009
FIRST SKY MAP OF THE INNER HELIOSHEATH TEMPERATURE USING IBEX SPECTRA journal May 2011
SPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF REGIONS AND STRUCTURES IN THE INTERSTELLAR BOUNDARY EXPLORER ( IBEX ) SKY MAPS journal May 2011
VARIATIONS IN THE HELIOSPHERIC POLAR ENERGETIC NEUTRAL ATOM FLUX OBSERVED BY THE INTERSTELLAR BOUNDARY EXPLORER journal February 2012
THE FIRST THREE YEARS OF IBEX OBSERVATIONS AND OUR EVOLVING HELIOSPHERE journal October 2012
IBEX : THE FIRST FIVE YEARS (2009-2013) journal July 2014
PLASMA FLOWS AT VOYAGER 2 AWAY FROM THE MEASURED SUPRATHERMAL PRESSURES journal October 2014
Voyager 1 Explores the Termination Shock Region and the Heliosheath Beyond journal September 2005
Global Observations of the Interstellar Interaction from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) journal October 2009
LATITUDE, ENERGY, AND TIME VARIATIONS IN THE ENERGETIC NEUTRAL ATOM SPECTRAL INDICES MEASURED BY THE INTERSTELLAR BOUNDARY EXPLORER ( IBEX ) journal November 2016
TRACKING THE SOLAR CYCLE THROUGH IBEX OBSERVATIONS OF ENERGETIC NEUTRAL ATOM FLUX VARIATIONS AT THE HELIOSPHERIC POLES journal December 2016
Imprint of the Sun’s Evolving Polar Winds on IBEX Energetic Neutral Atom All-sky Observations of the Heliosphere journal August 2017
Simulation of the Solar Wind Dynamic Pressure Increase in 2014 and Its Effect on Energetic Neutral Atom Fluxes from the Heliosphere journal May 2018
Expanding Global Features in the Outer Heliosphere journal February 2019
Seven Years of Imaging the Global Heliosphere with IBEX journal April 2017
Interstellar Pickup Ion Observations to 38 au journal November 2017
Heliosphere Responds to a Large Solar Wind Intensification: Decisive Observations from IBEX journal March 2018
Survival probability and energy modification of hydrogen Energetic Neutral Atoms on their way from the termination shock to Earth orbit text January 2008
Reconstruction of Helio-latitudinal Structure of the Solar Wind Proton Speed and Density text January 2015
Seven Years of Imaging the Global Heliosphere with IBEX text January 2017

Cited By (2)

An Empirical Model of Energetic Neutral Atom Imaging of the Heliosphere and Its Implications for Future Heliospheric Missions at Great Heliocentric Distances journal November 2019
An Empirical Model of Energetic Neutral Atom Imaging of the Heliosphere and Its Implications for Future Heliospheric Missions at Great Heliocentric Distances text January 2019

Figures / Tables (3)

Figure 1(p. 6)figure Figure 1
Figure 2(p. 8)figure Figure 2
Figure 3(p. 10)figure Figure 3

Similar Records

TRACKING THE SOLAR CYCLE THROUGH IBEX OBSERVATIONS OF ENERGETIC NEUTRAL ATOM FLUX VARIATIONS AT THE HELIOSPHERIC POLES
Journal Article · Mon Dec 19 23:00:00 EST 2016 · Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:22661454
VARIATIONS IN THE HELIOSPHERIC POLAR ENERGETIC NEUTRAL ATOM FLUX OBSERVED BY THE INTERSTELLAR BOUNDARY EXPLORER
Journal Article · Fri Mar 09 23:00:00 EST 2012 · Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:22016222
Evolution of the Heliotail Lobes over a Solar Cycle as Measured by IBEX
Journal Article · Wed Jul 27 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · The Astrophysical Journal. Supplement Series · OSTI ID:1974968

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
Sun: corona
Sun: heliosphere
heliospheric and magnetospheric physics
solar wind