Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

Wiley, Journal of Geophysical Research. Space Physics, 10(119), p. 8017-8029, 2014

DOI: 10.1002/2014ja019761

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Hydrogen atoms in the inner heliosphere: SWAN-SOHO and MASCS-MESSENGER observations

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Red circle
Preprint: archiving forbidden
Orange circle
Postprint: archiving restricted
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We present here a study made by two instruments, MASCS on MESSENGER and SWAN on SOHO that observed the interplanetary background in 2010. The combination of these two data sets allows us to perform the first study of the distribution of hydrogen atoms inside the Earth's orbit. Triangulation of the position of the Maximum Emissivity Region (MER) was performed for the data of the UVVS channel of the MASCS-MESSENGER instrument. We find that the ecliptic longitude of the MER is 253.2° ±2.0°. This is the same value that was found from the analysis of the SWAN-SOHO H cell data obtained in 1996. This strongly suggests that the direction of the interstellar hydrogen wind has not changed between 1996 and 2010. We have also determined the distance of the MER to the Sun. We find that the volume emission rate peaks at 2.37 AU ±0.2 AU from the Sun. This value is a good test for the solar parameters for total H ionization and radiation pressure used in models. Comparison between the two datasets obtained by the UVVS-MASCS channel and SWAN on SOHO allow to derive the intensity between the two spacecraft at peak emission. Based on the SWAN-SOHO calibration, we find an intensity of 80 R ±36 R. This corresponds to a column density of 1540 m−3 AUx2.3 × 1014 m−3 . When divided by the distance between the two spacecraft, we find an average number density of 2300 m−3.