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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH,
VOL. 113,
A06102,
6 PP., 2008
doi:10.1029/2007JA012758
Implications of solar wind suprathermal tails for IBEX ENA images of the heliosheath
Department of Astronomy, Center for Space Physics and Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Department of Astronomy, Center for Space Physics and Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Department of Astronomy, Center for Space Physics and Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Department of Astronomy, Center for Space Physics and Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Space Science and Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Department of Astronomy, Center for Space Physics and Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Department of Astronomy, Center for Space Physics and Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute for Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside, California, USA
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside, California, USA
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside, California, USA
Department of Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
Space Science and Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Space Science and Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Space Science and Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Maryland, USA
Space Physics Laboratory, Lockheed Martin, Palo Alto, California, USA
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
Space Science Center and Department of Physics, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
Physikalisches Institut, Space and Planetary Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Decades of interplanetary measurements of the solar wind and other space plasmas have established that the suprathermal ion
intensity distributions (j) are non-Maxwellian and are characterized by high-energy power law tails (j ∼ E− 
). Recent analysis by Fisk and Gloeckler of suprathermal ion observations between 1–5 AU demonstrates that a particular differential
intensity distribution function emerges universally between ∼2–10 times the solar wind speed with ∼ 1.5. This power law tail is particularly apparent in downstream distributions beyond reverse shocks associated with corotating
interaction regions. Similar power law tails have been observed in the downstream flow beyond the termination shock by the
Low Energy Charged Particle instrument on both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Using kappa distributions with internal energy, density, and bulk flow derived
from large-scale magnetohydrodynamic models, we calculate the simulated flux of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) produced in
the heliosheath by charge exchange between solar wind protons and interstellar hydrogen. We then produce simulated ENA maps
of the heliosheath, such as will be measured by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer Mission (IBEX). We also estimate the expected
signal to noise and background ratio for IBEX. The solar wind suprathermal tail significantly increases the ENA flux within
the IBEX energy range, ∼0.01–6 keV, by more than an order of magnitude at the highest energies over the estimates using a
Maxwellian. It is therefore essential to consider suprathermal tails in the interpretation of IBEX ENA images and theoretical
modeling of the heliospheric termination shock.
Received 24 August 2007; accepted 25 February 2008; published 12 June 2008.
Citation: (2008), Implications of solar wind suprathermal tails for IBEX ENA images of the heliosheath, J. Geophys. Res., 113, A06102, doi:10.1029/2007JA012758.
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