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Constraints on the neutral hydrogen corona at Uranus from its interaction with magnetospheric plasma
Author(s) -
Herbert Floyd
Publication year - 1988
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/gl015i007p00705
Subject(s) - uranus , physics , corona (planetary geology) , energetic neutral atom , photoionization , plasma , magnetosphere , hydrogen , ionization , astronomy , population , astrophysics , atomic physics , ion , astrobiology , nuclear physics , planet , demography , quantum mechanics , sociology , venus
Models of collisional reactions between the hot (several keV) protons and neutral atomic hydrogen corona observed at Uranus by Voyager 2 are compared with the observations in order to deduce constraints on the coronal density. An upper limit is found for n H (5R U ) of several tens of H/cm³ on the sunward side of Uranus and several H/cm³ on the dark side. The possibility that the hot plasma population might arise from photoionization and electron impact ionization of coronal and interstellar medium hydrogen in the magnetotail, followed by pickup and energization while convecting toward Uranus, is examined and rejected.