ISSI TEAM "Physics of the heliotail"

Team Investigators:

Vlad Izmodenov (team leader), Lomonosov, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, E-mail: izmod@ipmnet.ru

Dmitry Alexashov,  Institute for Problems in Mechanics, Russian Academy of Sciences, E-mail: alexash@ipmnet.ru
Vladimir Baranov, Institute for Problems in Mechanics, Russian Academy of Sciences, E-mail: baranov@ipmnet.ru
Andrzej Czechowski, Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, E-mail: ace@cbk.waw.pl
Hans Fahr, Insitur fuer Astrophysik und Extraterrestrisch Forschung der Universitat Bonn, E-mail: hfahr@astro.uni-bonn.de
Mike Gruntman, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, E-mail: mikeg@spock.usc.edu
Stan Grzedzielski, Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, E-mail: stangrze@cbk.waw.pl
Vladimir Florinski, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside, USA, E-mail: vflorins@citrus.ucr.edu
Reinald Kallenbach, International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland, E-mail: reinald.kallenbach@issi.unibe.ch
Rosine Lallement, Service d' Aeronomie, France, E-mail: Rosine.Lallement@aerov.jussieu.fr
Yury Malama, Institute for Problems in Mechanics, Russian Academy of Sciences, E-mail: malama@ipmnet.ru
Ed Roelof, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, MD, USA, e-mail: Edmond.Roelof@jhuapl.edu
Michael S. Ruderman, Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Sheffeld, UK, E-mail:  M.S.Ruderman@sheffield.ac.uk
Peter Wurz, University of Bern, Switzerland, e-mail: peter.wurz@soho.unibe.ch

Group Homepage (restricted access)

Scientific rationale of the project:

In the project we will seek the answer to the fundamental question:  What is the nature of the region of the solar wind/ LIC interaction in the downwind direction? Or, more specifically, what physical processes are the most important in the downwind direction? Where is the boundary of the solar system in the downwind direction? What is the correct definition of the heliospheric interface boundary downwind?
How do the solar wind plasma and the interstellar plasma mix? How does the heliospheric magnetic field lines evolve in the heliotail and how does it interact with the interstellar magnetic fields?

The concept of the heliospheric interface is currently rather well developed. It has been shown in a number of works (including many papers of the participants of this project), that the solar wind and interstellar plasmas, interplanetary and interstellar magnetic fields, interstellar atoms, galactic and anomalous cosmic rays (GCRs and ACRs) and pickup ions play prominent roles in the heliospheric interface.
However, most of the numerical multi-component models of the heliospheric interface do not have an extended computational region in the downwind direction. There are two reasons for this: a) in the downwind there are a number of additional physical processes whose roles need to be evaluated; b) it is commonly known, that it is difficult to perform numerical computations in the downwind regions of the interaction of gas flows with obstacles. Here we have a similar problem. This problem is due to the boundary conditions, which are quite difficult to satisfy for a sub-sonic outflow.

At the present time, the interest to the studies of the processes in the heliotail is growing due to the recent CELIAS/SOHO determination of the enhancement of high-energy ENA fluxes in the downwind direction, and new measurements of ENA fluxes by IMAGE ENA instruments. The experimental study of the ENA fluxes may provide a unique tool to probe the heliospheric tail.

In the frame of the team we  study and/or evaluate the following physical processes on the downwind plasma flow and its diagnostics: the charge exchange process; effects connected with interstellar and heliospheric magnetic fields; interstellar ionization; diffusion across the heliopause by micro scale plasma processes like wave-particle interactions as well as by turbulences in the LISM.