SH41B-2381
Spectral Modulation of the IBEX Ribbon Flux by the Dynamic Draping of the Interstellar Medium over the Heliosphere
Thursday, 17 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Herbert O Funsten1, Kyle T Pittman1, Priscilla C Frisch2, Paul H Janzen3, David J McComas4, Daniel Brett Reisenfeld5, Nathan Schwadron6 and Eric Zirnstein4, (1)Los Alamos Natl Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States, (2)University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States, (3)University of Montana, Missoula, MT, United States, (4)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States, (5)University of Montana, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Missoula, MT, United States, (6)University of New Hampshire Main Campus, Space Science Center, Durham, NH, United States
Abstract:
The bright energetic neutral atom (ENA) emission in the circular ribbon observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) ribbon is a key ordering parameter of the interaction region between the heliosphere and the insterstellar medium. The ribbon is hypothesized to result from the condition in which the interstellar magnetic field, which is draped over the heliosphere and is the emission location in the "secondary" reibbon hypothesis, is oriented perpendicular to the line-of-sight view from IBEX. Here, we consider the relative motion of the draped magnetic field line for modulating ribbon intensity. Using the 0.7 keV and 1.1 keV ENA maps from the IBEX-Hi instrument, we find that this relative motion may significantly contribute to the variation of ribbon flux around the ribbon. We discuss the implications of this relative motion on our understanding the global structure and dynamics of the heliosphere-insterstellar medium interaction.
