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Swan Observations of the Solar Wind Latitude Distribution and its Evolution Since Launch

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Abstract

SWAN is the first space instrument dedicated to the monitoring of the latitude distribution of the solar wind by the Lyman alpha method. The distribution of interstellar H atoms in the solar system is determined by their destruction during ionization charge-exchange with solar wind protons. Maps of sky Ly-α emission have been recorded regularly since launch. The upwind maximum emission region deviates strongly from the pattern that would be expected from a solar wind that is constant with latitude. It is divided in two lobes by a depression aligned with the solar equatorial plane, called the Lyman-alpha groove, due to enhanced ionization along the neutral sheet where the slow and dense solar wind is concentrated. The groove (or the anisotropy) is more pronounced in 1997 than in 1996, but it then decreases between 1997 and 1998.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Service d'Aéronomie du CNRS, BP. 3, 91371, Verrières-le-Buisson, France

    Jean-Loup Bertaux, Eric Quemerais, Rosine Lallement & Jorge Costa

  2. Finnish Meteorological Institute, P.O. Box 503, FI 00101, Helsinki, Finland

    Erkki Kyrölä, Walter Schmidt, Tuula Summanen & Teemu Mäkinen

Authors
  1. Jean-Loup Bertaux
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  2. Erkki Kyrölä
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  3. Eric Quemerais
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  4. Rosine Lallement
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  5. Walter Schmidt
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  6. Tuula Summanen
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  7. Jorge Costa
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  8. Teemu Mäkinen
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Bertaux, JL., Kyrölä, E., Quemerais, E. et al. Swan Observations of the Solar Wind Latitude Distribution and its Evolution Since Launch. Space Science Reviews 87, 129–132 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005178402842

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005178402842

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