Energy Distribution of Pickup Ions at the Solar Wind Termination Shock
Abstract
In-situ measurements taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft suggest that the solar wind termination shock is significantly affected by the presence of pickup ions that are produced in the inner heliosphere due to charge exchange between interstellar neutrals and the solar wind ions. We use a fully kinetic particle-in-cell method to self-consistently simulate the shock with all physical properties available from Voyager 2. We have performed a set of simulations with varying velocity distribution functions for the pickup ions, since it was not determined by Voyager's measurements. We show that the measurements suggest that the pickup ions upstream of the shock are more energetic than generally believed. If their velocity distribution function assumes a filled-shell shape in the wind frame, the maximum cutoff speed for the pickup ions should be $≳$650 km s-1 in order to reproduce the measurements, which is almost twice the local wind speed. We suggest that pickup ions upstream of the shock are energized by adiabatic compression of the solar wind plasma as well as due to an enhanced level of turbulence in a broad foreshock region.
- Authors:
-
- Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1544059
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online); Journal Volume: 860; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357
- Publisher:
- Institute of Physics (IOP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Astronomy & Astrophysics
Citation Formats
Kumar, Rahul, Zirnstein, Eric J., and Spitkovsky, Anatoly. Energy Distribution of Pickup Ions at the Solar Wind Termination Shock. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aabf96.
Kumar, Rahul, Zirnstein, Eric J., & Spitkovsky, Anatoly. Energy Distribution of Pickup Ions at the Solar Wind Termination Shock. United States. doi:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aabf96
Kumar, Rahul, Zirnstein, Eric J., and Spitkovsky, Anatoly. Wed .
"Energy Distribution of Pickup Ions at the Solar Wind Termination Shock". United States. doi:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aabf96. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1544059.
@article{osti_1544059,
title = {Energy Distribution of Pickup Ions at the Solar Wind Termination Shock},
author = {Kumar, Rahul and Zirnstein, Eric J. and Spitkovsky, Anatoly},
abstractNote = {In-situ measurements taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft suggest that the solar wind termination shock is significantly affected by the presence of pickup ions that are produced in the inner heliosphere due to charge exchange between interstellar neutrals and the solar wind ions. We use a fully kinetic particle-in-cell method to self-consistently simulate the shock with all physical properties available from Voyager 2. We have performed a set of simulations with varying velocity distribution functions for the pickup ions, since it was not determined by Voyager's measurements. We show that the measurements suggest that the pickup ions upstream of the shock are more energetic than generally believed. If their velocity distribution function assumes a filled-shell shape in the wind frame, the maximum cutoff speed for the pickup ions should be $≳$650 km s-1 in order to reproduce the measurements, which is almost twice the local wind speed. We suggest that pickup ions upstream of the shock are energized by adiabatic compression of the solar wind plasma as well as due to an enhanced level of turbulence in a broad foreshock region.},
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aabf96},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal (Online)},
number = 2,
volume = 860,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {6}
}
Web of Science
Works referenced in this record:
Preferential Heating and Acceleration of Heavy Ions in Impulsive Solar Flares
journal, February 2017
- Kumar, Rahul; Eichler, David; Gaspari, Massimo
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 835, Issue 2
Hybrid simulations of the effects of interstellar pickup hydrogen on the solar wind termination shock
journal, January 1993
- Liewer, P. C.; Goldstein, B. E.; Omidi, N.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 98, Issue A9
Magnetic fields at the solar wind termination shock
journal, July 2008
- Burlaga, L. F.; Ness, N. F.; Acuña, M. H.
- Nature, Vol. 454, Issue 7200
Interstellar pickup ions and quasi-perpendicular shocks: Implications for the termination shock and interplanetary shocks
journal, January 1996
- Zank, G. P.; Pauls, H. L.; Cairns, I. H.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 101, Issue A1
Pickup ion energization by shock surfing
journal, March 1996
- Lee, Martin A.; Shapiro, Vitali D.; Sagdeev, Roald Z.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 101, Issue A3
Reforming perpendicular shocks in the presence of pickup protons: initial ion acceleration
journal, January 2005
- Lee, R. E.; Chapman, S. C.; Dendy, R. O.
- Annales Geophysicae, Vol. 23, Issue 2
Electron Heating in a Relativistic, Weibel-Unstable Plasma
journal, June 2015
- Kumar, Rahul; Eichler, David; Gedalin, Michael
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 806, Issue 2
Microstructure of the Heliospheric Termination Shock: Implications for Energetic Neutral atom Observations
journal, December 2009
- Zank, G. P.; Heerikhuisen, J.; Pogorelov, N. V.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 708, Issue 2
Interstellar Pickup ion Acceleration in the Turbulent Magnetic Field at the Solar wind Termination Shock Using a Focused Transport Approach
journal, July 2016
- Ye, Junye; Roux, Jakobus A. le; Arthur, Aaron D.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 826, Issue 2
The role pickup ions play in the termination shock: THE ROLE PUI PLAY IN THE TS
journal, June 2013
- Ariad, D.; Gedalin, M.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 118, Issue 6
Physical Roles of Interstellar-Origin Pickup ions at the Heliospheric Termination Shock: Impact on the Shock Front Microstructures and Nonstationarity
journal, August 2016
- Lembège, Bertrand; Yang, Zhongwei
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 827, Issue 1
Voyager 1 in the Foreshock, Termination Shock, and Heliosheath
journal, September 2005
- Decker, R. B.
- Science, Vol. 309, Issue 5743
On the flux and the energy spectrum of interstellar ions in the solar system
journal, March 1976
- Vasyliunas, V. M.; Siscoe, G. L.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 81, Issue 7
A Focused Transport Approach to Pickup Ion Shock Acceleration: Implications for the Termination Shock
journal, June 2007
- le Roux, J. A.; Webb, G. M.; Florinski, V.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 662, Issue 1
Simulations of pickup ion mediated quasi-perpendicular shocks: Implications for the heliospheric termination shock
journal, April 2014
- Matsukiyo, Shuichi; Scholer, Manfred
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 119, Issue 4
Hybrid simulations of the termination shock: Suprathermal ion velocity distributions in the heliosheath: ION DISTRIBUTIONS IN HELIOSHEATH
journal, November 2010
- Wu, Pin; Liu, Kaijun; Winske, Dan
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 115, Issue A11
PICKUP ION DYNAMICS AT THE HELIOSPHERIC TERMINATION SHOCK OBSERVED BY VOYAGER 2
journal, May 2010
- Burrows, R. H.; Zank, G. P.; Webb, G. M.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 715, Issue 2
Contributions to the cross shock electric field at supercritical perpendicular shocks: impact of the pickup ions
journal, May 2012
- Yang, Zhongwei; Han, Desheng; Yang, Huigen
- Astrophysics and Space Science, Vol. 341, Issue 2
Seven Years of Imaging the Global Heliosphere with IBEX
journal, April 2017
- McComas, D. J.; Zirnstein, E. J.; Bzowski, M.
- The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 229, Issue 2
Structure of Energetic Particle Mediated Shocks Revisited
journal, May 2017
- Mostafavi, P.; Zank, G. P.; Webb, G. M.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 841, Issue 1
Reflection of pre-accelerated pick-up ions at the solar wind termination shock: The seed for anomalous cosmic rays
journal, October 1996
- Chalov, Sergeiv; Fahr, Hans J.
- Solar Physics, Vol. 168, Issue 2
Constraining the pickup ion abundance and temperature through the multifluid reconstruction of the Voyager 2 termination shock crossing
journal, September 2015
- Zieger, Bertalan; Opher, Merav; Tóth, Gábor
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 120, Issue 9
Interstellar Pickup Ion Observations to 38 au
journal, November 2017
- McComas, D. J.; Zirnstein, E. J.; Bzowski, M.
- The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 233, Issue 1
IBEX—Interstellar Boundary Explorer
journal, April 2009
- McComas, D. J.; Allegrini, F.; Bochsler, P.
- Space Science Reviews, Vol. 146, Issue 1-4
Pickup Ion Effect of the Solar Wind Interaction with the Local Interstellar Medium
journal, November 2016
- Pogorelov, N. V.; Bedford, M. C.; Kryukov, I. A.
- Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Vol. 767
The Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) Instrument Aboard New Horizons
journal, August 2007
- McComas, D.; Allegrini, F.; Bagenal, F.
- Space Science Reviews, Vol. 140, Issue 1-4
Phasespace transport of a quasi-neutral multi-fluid plasma over the solar wind MHD termination shock
journal, June 2012
- Fahr, H. -J.; Siewert, M.; Chashei, I.
- Astrophysics and Space Science, Vol. 341, Issue 2
Cool heliosheath plasma and deceleration of the upstream solar wind at the termination shock
journal, July 2008
- Richardson, John D.; Kasper, Justin C.; Wang, Chi
- Nature, Vol. 454, Issue 7200
Structure of the Heliotail from Interstellar Boundary Explorer Observations: Implications for the 11-year Solar Cycle and Pickup Ions in the Heliosheath
journal, February 2017
- Zirnstein, E. J.; Heerikhuisen, J.; Zank, G. P.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 836, Issue 2
Energy dissipation and ion heating at the heliospheric termination shock: TERMINATION SHOCK ENERGY DISSIPATION
journal, August 2009
- Wu, P.; Winske, D.; Gary, S. P.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 114, Issue A8
IMPACT OF PICKUP IONS ON THE SHOCK FRONT NONSTATIONARITY AND ENERGY DISSIPATION OF THE HELIOSPHERIC TERMINATION SHOCK: TWO-DIMENSIONAL FULL PARTICLE SIMULATIONS AND COMPARISON WITH VOYAGER 2 OBSERVATIONS
journal, August 2015
- Yang, Zhongwei; Liu, Ying D.; Richardson, John D.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 809, Issue 1
Perpendicular Shock Reformation and Ion Acceleration
journal, November 2005
- Chapman, S. C.; Lee, R. E.; Dendy, R. O.
- Space Science Reviews, Vol. 121, Issue 1-4
Works referencing / citing this record:
Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP): A New NASA Mission
journal, October 2018
- McComas, D. J.; Christian, E. R.; Schwadron, N. A.
- Space Science Reviews, Vol. 214, Issue 8
Constraining the Evolution of the Proton Distribution Function in the Heliotail
journal, October 2018
- Zirnstein, E. J.; Kumar, R.; Heerikhuisen, J.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 865, Issue 2
The Effect of Suprathermal Protons in the Heliosheath on the Global Structure of the Heliosphere and Heliotail
journal, March 2019
- Heerikhuisen, Jacob; Zirnstein, Eric J.; Pogorelov, Nikolai V.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 874, Issue 1
Turbulent Heating in Solar Wind Thermodynamics
journal, December 2019
- Livadiotis, G.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 887, Issue 2
Heliospheric Structure as Revealed by the 3–88 keV H ENA Spectra
journal, December 2019
- Czechowski, A.; Bzowski, M.; Sokół, J. M.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 888, Issue 1
Rankine–Hugoniot Relations Including Pickup Ions
journal, January 2020
- Gedalin, Michael; Pogorelov, Nikolai V.; Roytershteyn, Vadim
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 889, Issue 2
Inner Heliosheath Shocks and Their Effect on Energetic Neutral Atom Observations by IBEX
journal, June 2019
- Mostafavi, P.; Zank, G. P.; Zirnstein, E. J.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 878, Issue 1