The Effect of Changing Solar Magnetic Field Intensity on ENA Maps

Abstract:

Opher et al. (2015) showed that the solar magnetic field can confine and collimate the solar wind plasma in the heliosheath. IBEX observations of the heliotail have shown the presence of two high latitude lobes of enhanced ENA flux in the heliotail at high energies (>2 keV). Numerous studies have investigated how the latitudinal variation of the solar wind during the solar cycle affects the latitudinal profile of ENAs in the heliotail. Kornbleuth et al. (2020) showed that while the solar wind profile does contribute to the high latitude lobes observed by IBEX in the heliotail, the solar magnetic field plays a significant role as well. In this work we use steady state MHD solutions corresponding to solar wind conditions from particular years to isolate how conditions corresponding to different periods of the solar cycle influence ENA maps. We find the variations in the intensity of the solar magnetic field play an important role in not only influencing observations of the heliotail, but also in affecting the thickness of the heliosheath in the direction of the nose. The variations not only affect the ENA intensity observed in the high latitude tail, but also the size and location of the high latitude lobes. Additionally, as noted by previous studies, we find the changes in the solar wind dynamic pressure influence the observed ENA flux and that asymmetries in the dynamic pressure can be discerned from ENA maps.