An Unexplained 10 Degree - 40 Degree Shift in the Location of Some Diverse Neutral Atom Data at 1 AU

Abstract

Four different data sets pertaining to the neutral atom environment at 1 AU are presented and discussed. These data sets include neutral solar wind and interstellar neutral atom data from IMAGE/LENA, energetic hydrogen atom data from SOHO/HSTOF and plasma wave data from the magnetometer on ISEE-3. Surprisingly, these data sets are centered between 262 degrees and 292 degrees ecliptic longitude, about 10 degrees - 40 degrees from the upstream interstellar neutral flow direction at 254 degrees resulting from the motion of the Sun relative to the local interstellar cloud. Some possible explanations for this offset, none of which is completely satisfactory, are discussed.

6 pages, 6 figures, 2 color peer-reviewed paper, in press, COSPAR/WSC

References in corpus (1)

• The galactic environment of the Sun

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