2015/07/02 by A. Czechowski, Czechowski, A., J. Grygorczuk +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #FOS: Physical sciences #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1507.00540
openalex publication_date 2015/07/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Observations of the energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) of heliospheric origin by IBEX differ from expectations based on heliospheric models. It was proposed that the structure of the heliosphere may be similar to the "two-stream" model derived in 1961 by Parker for the case of strong interstellar magnetic field. Using MHD simulations, we examine possible structure of the heliosphere for a wide range of interstellar magnetic field strengths, with different choices of interstellar medium and solar wind parameters. For the model heliospheres, we calculate the fluxes of ENAs created in the inner heliosheath, and compare with IBEX observations. We find that the plasma flow in the model heliospheres for strong interstellar field (∼20 μG) has a "two-stream" structure, which remains visible down to ∼5 μG. The obtained ENA flux distribution show the features similar to the "split tail" effect observed by IBEX. In our model, the main cause of this effect is the two component (fast and slow) solar wind structure.