THE SOLAR WIND CHARGE-EXCHANGE PRODUCTION FACTOR FOR HYDROGEN

ABSTRACT The mean production factor, or broadband averaged cross-section, for solar wind charge-exchange (SWCX) with hydrogen producing emission in the ROSAT keV (R12) band is count degree−2 cm4. The production factor is expected to be temporally variable, and that variation is roughly 15%. These va...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2015-08, Vol.808 (2), p.1-19
Main Authors: Kuntz, K. D., Collado-Vega, Y. M., Collier, M. R., Connor, H. K., Cravens, T. E., Koutroumpa, D., Porter, F. S., Robertson, I. P., Sibeck, D. G., Snowden, S. L., Thomas, N. E., Walsh, B. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysics
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
Correlation
CROSS SECTIONS
ELEMENT ABUNDANCE
EMISSION
GEOMETRY
HELIOSPHERE
HYDROGEN
Hydrogen storage
IONIZATION
KEV RANGE
MAGNETOSHEATH
OXYGEN
Sciences of the Universe
SIMULATION
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
SOLAR WIND
X RADIATION
X-rays: diffuse background
XMM (spacecraft)
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Summary:ABSTRACT The mean production factor, or broadband averaged cross-section, for solar wind charge-exchange (SWCX) with hydrogen producing emission in the ROSAT keV (R12) band is count degree−2 cm4. The production factor is expected to be temporally variable, and that variation is roughly 15%. These values are derived from a comparison of the long-term (background) enhancements in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey with magnetohysdrodynamic simulations of the magnetosheath. This value is 1.8-4.5 times higher than values derived from limited atomic data, suggesting that those values may be missing a large number of faint lines. This production factor is important for deriving the exact amount of keV band flux that is due to the Local Hot Bubble, for planning future observations in the keV band, and for evaluating proposals for remote sensing of the magnetosheath. The same method cannot be applied to the keV band as that band, being composed primarily of the oxygen lines, is far more sensitive to the detailed abundances and ionization balance in the solar wind. We also show, incidentally, that recent efforts to correlate XMM-Newton observing geometry with magnetosheath SWCX emission in the oxygen lines have been, quite literally, misguided. Simulations of the inner heliosphere show that broader efforts to correlate heliospheric SWCX with local solar wind parameters are unlikely to produce useful results.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/808/2/143