Evidence of a secondary stream of neutral fluxes at 1 AU

Michael Collier


Neutral atom and solar wind plasma wave data sets will be presented
which may be interpreted as evidence of the neutral atom environment at 
1 AU.  These data suggest the presence of a secondary stream of neutrals 
at 1 AU between 262 degrees and 292 degrees ecliptic longitude. These 
directions are 10-40 degrees from the nominal upstream direction at 252 
degrees ecliptic longitude which results from the motion of the Sun 
relative to the local interstellar cloud (LIC), but consistent with the 
Apex of the Sun's Way at 271 degrees ecliptic longitude which is defined 
by the motion of the Sun relative to nearby stars and with the Galactic 
center at 267 degrees ecliptic longitude. One possible explanation is 
that there is a previously unrecognized secondary stream of hot neutrals 
entering the heliosphere from that direction, perhaps due to nearby hot 
gas between our local cloud and the G cloud or due to an asymmetry in 
the heliosphere induced by a tilted interstellar magnetic field.

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Presented at the NASA Goddard Sun-Earth connection seminar series,
21 March 2003