A. V. Usmanov, M. L. Goldstein, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
The
energy and momentum redistribution between solar-wind and pickup protons
causes a deceleration of the solar wind in the distant heliosphere. Using a
three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic solar wind model that accounts for
charge exchange with interstellar neutral hydrogen and its photoionization
by solar radiation, we have simulated the magnetic field and plasma
distribution throughout the heliosphere from the coronal base out to 100 AU.
The solar magnetic field is assumed to be a tilted-dipole field — conditions
that are typical near solar minimum. Comparing the simulation runs with and
without effects of pickup protons, we quantitatively evaluate the
compression effect of the solar wind deceleration on the interplanetary
magnetic field intensity.