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Components used for the structure of the GLObal SolarWind Structure experiment in the NASA Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe space mission, made of AA6061-T6 alloy, are subjected to the coating process, where the temperature affects its mechanical properties. This paper aims to examine the impact of the coating thermal cycle on the mechanical properties of AA6061-T6 alloy, which is the load-carrying material in a spaceborne instrument. As a part of the manufacturing process, the parts made of AA6061-T6 are subjected to a coating process at a temperature of about 220°C for a time longer than 1 hour. This treatment modifies the mechanical properties of the alloy. To evaluate the consequences of this change for spaceborne components, mechanical testing, and numerical simulation were conducted. It was found that as a result of the coating process, the reduction in AA6061-T6 yield strength is about 16%, which entails a decrease in the margins of safety by 25% at its maximum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) from the heliosphere are a unique means to remotely image the boundary regions of our heliosphere. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) has been very successful in measuring these ENAs since 2008 at energies from tens of eV to 6 keV. The main question raised by one solar cycle of IBEX-Lo observations at 0.05–2 keV is the strong and ubiquitous underestimation of several model predictions compared with actually measured ENA intensities at energies between 100 and 500 eV. This study converts the observed ENA intensities into plasma pressures for different sky directions and considers the implications for our understanding of the heliosheath and the source of the observed ENAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review summarizes our current understanding of the outer heliosphere and local interstellar medium (LISM) inferred from observations and modeling of interplanetary Lyman- α emission. The emission is produced by solar Lyman- α photons (121.567 nm) backscattered by interstellar H atoms inflowing to the heliosphere from the LISM. Studies of Lyman- α radiation determined the parameters of interstellar hydrogen within a few astronomical units from the Sun. The interstellar hydrogen atoms appeared to be decelerated, heated, and shifted compared to the helium atoms. The detected deceleration and heating proved the existence of secondary hydrogen atoms created near the heliopause. This finding supports the discovery of a Hydrogen Wall beyond the heliosphere consisting of heated hydrogen observed in HST/GHRS Lyman- α absorption spectra toward nearby stars. The shift of the interstellar hydrogen bulk velocity was the first observational evidence of the global heliosphere asymmetry confirmed later by Voyager in situ measurements. SOHO/SWAN all-sky maps of the backscattered Lyman- α intensity identified variations of the solar wind mass flux with heliolatitude and time. In particular, two maxima at mid-latitudes were discovered during solar activity maximum, which Ulysses missed due to its specific trajectory. Finally, Voyager/UVS and New Horizons/Alice UV spectrographs discovered extraheliospheric Lyman- α emission. We review these scientific breakthroughs, outline open science questions, and discuss potential future heliospheric Lyman- α experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report here observations of magnetic waves recorded by the Voyager spacecraft in the solar wind near Jupiter that are possibly the result of excitation by newborn pickup H+. Consideration of growth rates due to the known interstellar ion sources strongly disfavor an interstellar source. To determine the likely source of the waves, we compute the minimum ion production rate by equating wave growth to turbulent cascade rates and derive a lower limit for the production of H+ at the times of observations. The only available source of neutral H at these times and at the levels required is the Jovian system, most notably charge exchange between energetic protons and the neutral clouds around Io and Europa's orbits. Further refinement of the source identity is not possible at this time. We provide an estimate for the neutral H source subject to assumptions of the latitudinal extent of the population which is not constrained by observation. Plain Language Summary: The Voyager spacecraft instruments include a fluxgate magnetometer called MAG that measures the changing ambient magnetic field. We report observations by MAG of low‐frequency waves in the solar wind outside the Jovian magnetosphere that are seen at frequencies and with characteristics that suggest the waves are excited by protons that originate as neutral hydrogen. Collision with solar wind protons ionize the neutral hydrogen to produce an energetic ion population called pickup ions. We use known characteristics of wave excitation by pickup ions to estimate the rate of pickup ion production. The only source that is strong enough to produce the pickup ions with the number density required is the Jovian system. Key Points: Magnetic waves were measured by Voyagers 1 and 2 in the solar wind near the magnetosphere of JupiterThese waves have signatures of excitation by local pickup H+ ionsA neutral H loss rate of ∼5 × 1028 s−1 from the Jovian system is estimated [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the heliosphere moves through the surrounding interstellar medium, a fraction of the interstellar neutral helium, hydrogen, and heavier species crossing the heliopause make it to the inner heliosphere as neutral atoms with energies ranging from few eV to several hundred eV. In addition, energetic neutral hydrogen atoms originating from solar wind protons and from pick-up ions are created through charge-exchange with interstellar atoms. This review summarizes all observations of heliospheric energetic neutral atoms and interstellar neutrals at energies below 10 keV. Most of these data were acquired with the Interstellar Boundary Explorer launched in 2008. Among many other IBEX breakthroughs, it provided the first ever all-sky maps of energetic neutral atoms from the heliosphere and enabled the science community to measure in-situ interstellar neutral hydrogen, oxygen, and neon for the first time. These observations have revolutionized and keep challenging our understanding of the heliosphere shaped by the combined forces of the local interstellar flow, the local interstellar magnetic field, and the time-dependent solar wind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have examined Ulysses magnetic field measurements for the years 1993 through 1996 as the spacecraft moved sunward from 5 au at high southern latitudes, passing through perihelion during the first fast-latitude scan to achieve high northern latitudes, and finally returning to 5 au. These years represent near-solar-minimum activity, providing a clear measure of high-latitude solar-wind turbulence. We apply a series of tests to the data, examining both the magnetic variance anisotropy and the underlying wavevector anisotropy, finding them to be consistent with past 1 au observations. The variance anisotropy depends upon both the thermal proton temperature parameter and the amplitude of the magnetic power spectrum, while the underlying wavevector anisotropy is dominated by the component perpendicular to the mean magnetic field. We also examine the amplitude of the magnetic power spectrum as well as the associated turbulent transport of energy to small scales that results in the heating of the thermal plasma. The measured turbulence is found to be stronger than that seen at low latitudes by the Voyager spacecraft as it traverses the distance from 1 to 5 au during the years approaching solar maximum. If the high- and low-latitude sources are comparable, this would indicate that while the heating processes are active in both regions, the turbulence has had less decay time in the transport of energy to small scales. Alternatively, it may also be that the high-latitude source is stronger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We adopt the theory for turbulent transport of energy by solar wind fluctuations and apply that theory to observations by the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft to obtain rates of thermal proton heating that are controlled by two sources: the large-scale fluctuations in the solar wind that arise from solar sources and the excitation of waves by newborn interstellar ions. In the process, we compute magnetic spectra for 839 data intervals spanning the range from 1 to 35 au when thermal ion data is available and use those spectra to obtain independent estimates for the energy cascade rates at intermediate scales that we assume equals the rate of thermal proton heating by the turbulence. We compare three analyses that describe different aspects of the solar wind heating problem: the rate of energy cascade through the intermediate scales of the magnetic spectrum, the rate at which energy is supplied to that cascade from the large-scale fluctuations as described by magnetohydrodynamic transport theory, and the rate at which energy is injected into the spectrum via wave excitation by newborn interstellar ions. The first two expressions are found to be in good agreement while the latter source dynamics become important beyond 10 au. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine both Voyager and Advanced Composition Explorer magnetic field measurements at frequencies that characterize the inertial range and evaluate the anisotropy of the fluctuations as they relate to both the compressive component and underlying wavevector anisotropy of the turbulence. The magnetic fluctuation anisotropy as it relates to the compressive component is directly dependent upon both the plasma beta of the thermal proton component and the ratio of magnetic fluctuation magnitude to the strength of the mean magnetic field. This has been seen before at 1 au. The magnetic fluctuation anisotropy in the plane perpendicular to the mean magnetic field, which is a measure of the anisotropy of the underlying wavevector distribution, should depend on the angle between the mean magnetic field and the radial direction and should be confined to values between one and the index of the power spectrum, which is typically 5/3. Our results show that the average of this anisotropy exceeds the value of the spectral index and is out of bounds with the theory. Although the results are suggestive of past analyses, we find that spherical expansion of the turbulence may offer at least a partial explanation of the apparent amplification of this measured anisotropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine both Voyager and Advanced Composition Explorer magnetic field measurements at frequencies that characterize the inertial range using traditional polarization techniques that are designed to characterize plasma waves. Although we find good agreement with both the anticipated spectral index of the power spectrum and the scaling of magnetic power with heliocentric distance, we do not find that the polarization analyses yield results that can be readily described by plasma wave theory. The fluctuations are not circularly polarized and there is a markedly reduced coherence between the components of the fluctuation. The degree of polarization is also generally low, although not as low as the coherence, and the minimum variance direction is essentially random. We conclude that traditional plasma wave theory may not offer a good description for inertial-range fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a published effort to study low-frequency magnetic waves excited by newborn interstellar pickup ions seen by the Voyager spacecraft, we developed a set of control intervals that represent the background turbulence when the observations are not dominated by wave excitation. This paper begins an effort to better understand solar wind turbulence from 1 to 45 au while spanning greater than one solar cycle. We first focus on the diagnostics marking the onset of dissipation. This includes an expected break in the power spectrum at frequencies greater than the proton cyclotron frequency and a resultant steepening of the spectrum at higher frequencies. Contrary to what is established at 1 au, we only see the spectral break in rare instances. The expected scaling of the spectral index with the turbulence rate is seen, but it is not as clearly established as it was at 1 au. We also find that both Voyager data from 1 to 45 au and Advanced Composition Explorer data from 1 au show significant bias of the magnetic helicity at dissipation scales when the dissipation-range power-law spectral index steepens. We conclude that dissipation dynamics are similar throughout the heliosphere in so far as we have examined to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review addresses our current understanding of comets that venture close to the Sun, and are hence exposed to much more extreme conditions than comets that are typically studied from Earth. The extreme solar heating and plasma environments that these objects encounter change many aspects of their behaviour, thus yielding valuable information on both the comets themselves that complements other data we have on primitive solar system bodies, as well as on the near-solar environment which they traverse. We propose clear definitions for these comets: We use the term near-Sun comets to encompass all objects that pass sunward of the perihelion distance of planet Mercury (0.307 AU). Sunskirters are defined as objects that pass within 33 solar radii of the Sun's centre, equal to half of Mercury's perihelion distance, and the commonly-used phrase sungrazers to be objects that reach perihelion within 3.45 solar radii, i.e. the fluid Roche limit. Finally, comets with orbits that intersect the solar photosphere are termed sundivers. We summarize past studies of these objects, as well as the instruments and facilities used to study them, including space-based platforms that have led to a recent revolution in the quantity and quality of relevant observations. Relevant comet populations are described, including the Kreutz, Marsden, Kracht, and Meyer groups, near-Sun asteroids, and a brief discussion of their origins. The importance of light curves and the clues they provide on cometary composition are emphasized, together with what information has been gleaned about nucleus parameters, including the sizes and masses of objects and their families, and their tensile strengths. The physical processes occurring at these objects are considered in some detail, including the disruption of nuclei, sublimation, and ionisation, and we consider the mass, momentum, and energy loss of comets in the corona and those that venture to lower altitudes. The different components of comae and tails are described, including dust, neutral and ionised gases, their chemical reactions, and their contributions to the near-Sun environment. Comet-solar wind interactions are discussed, including the use of comets as probes of solar wind and coronal conditions in their vicinities. We address the relevance of work on comets near the Sun to similar objects orbiting other stars, and conclude with a discussion of future directions for the field and the planned ground- and space-based facilities that will allow us to address those science topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We simulated the modulation of the interstellar neutral (ISN) He, Ne, and O density and pickup ion (PUI) production rate and count rate along the Earth's orbit over the solar cycle (SC) from 2002 to 2013 to verify if SC-related effects may modify the inferred ecliptic longitude of the ISN inflow direction. We adopted the classical PUI model with isotropic distribution function and adiabatic cooling, modified by time- and heliolatitude-dependent ionization rates and non-zero injection speed of PUIs. We found that the ionization losses have a noticeable effect on the derivation of the ISN inflow longitude based on the Gaussian fit to the crescent and cone peak locations. We conclude that the non-zero radial velocity of the ISN flow and the energy range of the PUI distribution function that is accumulated are of importance for a precise reproduction of the PUI count rate along the Earth orbit. However, the temporal and latitudinal variations of the ionization in the heliosphere, and particularly their variation on the SC time-scale, may significantly modify the shape of PUI cone and crescent and also their peak positions from year to year and thus bias by a few degrees the derived longitude of the ISN gas inflow direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modeling of the heliosphere requires continuous three-dimensional solar wind data. The in-situ out-of-ecliptic measurements are very rare, so that other methods of solar wind detection are needed. We use the remote-sensing data of the solar wind speed from observations of interplanetary scintillation (IPS) to reconstruct spatial and temporal structures of the solar wind proton speed from 1985 to 2013. We developed a method of filling the data gaps in the IPS observations to obtain continuous and homogeneous solar wind speed records. We also present a method to retrieve the solar wind density from the solar wind speed, utilizing the invariance of the solar wind dynamic pressure and energy flux with latitude. To construct the synoptic maps of the solar wind speed we use the decomposition into spherical harmonics of each of the Carrington rotation map. To fill the gaps in time we apply the singular spectrum analysis to the time series of the coefficients of spherical harmonics. We obtained helio-latitudinal profiles of the solar wind proton speed and density over almost three recent solar cycles. The accuracy in the reconstruction is, due to computational limitations, about 20 %. The proposed methods allow us to improve the spatial and temporal resolution of the model of the solar wind parameters presented in our previous paper (Sokół et al., Solar Phys. 285, 167, ) and give a better insight into the time variations of the solar wind structure. Additionally, the solar wind density is reconstructed more accurately and it fits better to the in-situ measurements from Ulysses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on a comprehensive signal processing procedure for very low signal levels for the measurement of neutral deuterium in the local interstellar medium from a spacecraft in Earth orbit. The deuterium measurements were performed with the IBEX-Lo camera on NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) satellite. Our analysis technique for these data consists of creating a mass relation in three-dimensional time of flight space to accurately determine the position of the predicted D events, to precisely model the tail of the H events in the region where the H tail events are near the expected D events, and then to separate the H tail from the observations to extract the very faint D signal. This interstellar D signal, which is expected to be a few counts per year, is extracted from a strong terrestrial background signal, consisting of sputter products from the sensor's conversion surface. As reference we accurately measure the terrestrial D/H ratio in these sputtered products and then discriminate this terrestrial background source. During the three years of the mission time when the deuterium signal was visible to IBEX, the observation geometry and orbit allowed for a total observation time of 115.3 days. Because of the spinning of the spacecraft and the stepping through eight energy channels the actual observing time of the interstellar wind was only 1.44 days. With the optimised data analysis we found three counts that could be attributed to interstellar deuterium. These results update our earlier work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission has recently opened a new window on the interstellar medium (ISM) by imaging neutral atoms. One "bright" feature in the sky is the interstellar wind flowing into the solar system. Composed of remnants of stellar explosions as well as primordial gas and plasma, the ISM is by no means uniform. The interaction of the local ISM with the solar wind shapes our heliospheric environment with hydrogen being the dominant component of the very local ISM. In this paper, we report on direct sampling of the neutral hydrogen of the local ISM over four years of IBEX observations. The hydrogen wind observed at 1 AU has decreased and nearly disappeared as the solar activity has increased over the last four years; the signal at 1 AU has dropped off in 2012 by a factor of~8 to near background levels. The longitudinal offset has also increased with time presumably due to greater radiation pressure deflecting the interstellar wind.We present longitudinal and latitudinal arrival direction measurements of the bulk flow as measured over four years beginning at near solar minimum conditions. The H distribution we observe at 1 AU is expected to be different from that outside the heliopause due to ionization, photon pressure, gravity, and filtration by interactions with heliospheric plasma populations. These observations provide an important benchmark for modeling of the global heliospheric interaction. Based on these observations we suggest a further course of scientific action to observe neutral hydrogen over a full solar cycle with IBEX. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]