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Can the direction of interstellar magnetic field be determined from the heliotail ENA flux?
Author(s) -
Czechowski Andrzej,
Grzedzielski Stanislaw
Publication year - 1998
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 - 10.1029/98gl51504
Subject(s) - physics , flux (metallurgy) , magnetic field , magnetic flux , ion , interstellar medium , astrophysics , cosmic ray , field (mathematics) , computational physics , earth's magnetic field , atomic physics , materials science , quantum mechanics , mathematics , pure mathematics , metallurgy , galaxy
The effect of pressure of the (arbitrarily directed) interstellar magnetic field on the shape of the heliotail and consequently on space distribution of the pick‐up and anomalous cosmic ray ions convected into the heliotail region is estimated in a simple model based on a Newtonian approximation. The ion distribution in the heliotail produces (via transcharging on background gas) a flux of energetic neutral atoms which can be detected from the vicinity of the Earth. Directional dependence of this flux can be used to determine the direction and possibly strength of the interstellar field.