Soft X-Ray Imaging of Earth's Dayside Magnetosheath and Cusps Using Hybrid Simulations

Interactions between solar wind ions and neutral hydrogen atoms in Earth's exosphere can lead to the emission of soft X-rays. Upcoming missions such as SMILE and LEXI aim to use soft X-ray imaging to study the global structure of the magnetosphere. Although the magnetosheath and dayside magneto...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical research letters 2023-05, Vol.50 (10), p.n/a
Main Authors: Ng, J, Walsh, B M, Chen, L-J, Omelchenko, Y
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cusps
dayside
Earth
Earth magnetosphere
Earth Resources and Remote Sensing
Emission
Emissions
Exosphere
Fluid flow
hybrid simulation
Hydrogen atoms
Imaging
Imaging techniques
Instruments
Interplanetary magnetic field
Ions
kinetic physics
Magnetic field
Magnetic fields
Magnetopause
Magnetosheath
Missions
Physics
Simulation
soft X‐ray
Solar wind
Solar wind ions
Structures
Turbulence
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Summary:Interactions between solar wind ions and neutral hydrogen atoms in Earth's exosphere can lead to the emission of soft X-rays. Upcoming missions such as SMILE and LEXI aim to use soft X-ray imaging to study the global structure of the magnetosphere. Although the magnetosheath and dayside magnetopause can often be driven by kinetic physics, it has typically been omitted from fluid simulations used to predict X-ray emissions. We study the possible results of soft X-ray imaging using hybrid simulations under quasi-radial interplanetary magnetic fields, where ion-ion instabilities drive ultra-low frequency foreshock waves, leading to turbulence in the magnetosheath, affecting the dynamics of the cusp and magnetopause. We simulate soft X-ray emission to determine what may be seen by missions such as LEXI, and evaluate the possibility of identifying kinetic structures. While kinetic structures are visible in high-cadence imaging, current instruments may not have the time resolution to discern kinetic signals.
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1029/2023GL103347