Empirical Functions for Highly Charged Ion Abundances in Solar Wind
Charge Exchange Models: Addressing Post-2011 ACE Data Limitations
Abstract
Upcoming imaging missions - NASA’s LEXI and ESA/CAS’s SMILE - will
target solar wind charge exchange X-ray (SWCX) emission from Earth’s
magnetosheath. This emission is generated by highly charged ions
colliding with neutrals in Earth’s exosphere. Accurate SWCX models
require data on exospheric neutral densities, as well as solar wind flux
and composition. The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) Solar Wind
Ionic Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) provided the needed solar wind
composition data from 1998 until an instrument anomaly in 2011 limited
its outputs. To address this, we developed empirical functions using ion
ratios (O7+/O6+,
O8+/O6+, C6+/C5+) still
available from ACE, partially compensating for missing composition data.
The results underscore the need for a new mission to measure solar wind
composition and support future SWCX analysis efforts.