Interstellar hydrogen fluxes measured by IBEX-Lo in 2009 : Numerical modeling and comparison with the data

Olga Katushkina (1, 2) , Vladislav V. Izmodenov (2, 3, 4) , Dmitry B. Alexashov (2, 3) , Nathan A. Schwadron (5, 6) , David J. Mccomas (6, 7)

1 HELIOS - LATMOS
2 IKI - Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
3 institute for Problems in Mechanics [Moscow]
4 MSU - Lomonosov Moscow State University
5 EOS Space Science Center [Durham]
6 SwRI - Southwest Research Institute [San Antonio]
7 UTSA - The University of Texas at San Antonio

In this paper, we perform numerical modeling of the interstellar hydrogen fluxes measured by IBEX-Lo during orbit 23 (spring 2009) using a state-of-the-art kinetic model of the interstellar neutral hydrogen distribution in the heliosphere. This model takes into account the temporal and heliolatitudinal variations of the solar parameters as well as the non-Maxwellian kinetic properties of the hydrogen distribution due to charge exchange in the heliospheric interface. We found that there is a qualitative difference between the IBEX-Lo data and the modeling results obtained with the three-dimensional, time-dependent model. Namely, the model predicts a larger count rate in energy bin 2 (20–41 eV) than in energy bin 1 (11–21 eV), while the data shows the opposite case. We perform study of the model parameter effects on the IBEX-Lo fluxes and the ratio of fluxes in two energy channels. We show that the most important parameter, which has a major influence on the ratio of the fluxes in the two energy bins, is the solar radiation pressure.

Domains: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics [astro-ph.SR]

Olga Katushkina, Vladislav V. Izmodenov, Dmitry B. Alexashov, Nathan A. Schwadron, David J. Mccomas. Interstellar hydrogen fluxes measured by IBEX-Lo in 2009 : Numerical modeling and comparison with the data. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 2015, 220 (2), pp.art.33. ⟨10.1088/0067-0049/220/2/33⟩. ⟨insu-01223764⟩