Premium
A comparison of empirical and experimental O 7+ , O 8+ , and O/H values, with applications to terrestrial solar wind charge exchange
Author(s) -
Whittaker Ian C.,
Sembay Steve
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2016gl069914
Subject(s) - solar wind , exosphere , physics , flux (metallurgy) , charge exchange , range (aeronautics) , ion , computational physics , atomic physics , atmospheric sciences , solar energetic particles , astrophysics , coronal mass ejection , plasma , chemistry , materials science , nuclear physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , composite material
Solar wind charge exchange occurs at Earth between the neutral planetary exosphere and highly charged ions of the solar wind. The main challenge in predicting the resultant photon flux in the X‐ray energy bands is due to the interaction efficiency, known as the α value. This study produces experimental α values at the Earth, for oxygen emission in the range of 0.5–0.7 keV. Thirteen years of data from the Advanced Composition Explorer are examined, comparing O 7+ and O 8+ abundances, as well as O/H to other solar wind parameters allowing all parameters in theαO 7 , 8 +calculation to be estimated based on solar wind velocity. Finally, a table is produced for a range of solar wind speeds giving average O 7+ and O 8+ abundances, O/H, andαO 7 , 8 +values.