Voyager Ultraviolet Spectrometers calibration and the heliosphere neutrals composition: reassessment

TL;DR

This paper reevaluates the calibration of Voyager UVS instruments, concluding their sensitivities are stable and consistent with previous findings, and confirms the heliosphere's distortion and magnetic field orientation without calibration revisions.

Contribution

The study provides a revised calibration approach for Voyager UVS, challenging recent sensitivity enhancement claims and reaffirming previous heliospheric observations.

Findings

Voyager UVS sensitivities are stable within 30% uncertainty.

Revised calibration aligns with Saturn Lyman-alpha observations and IUE data.

Heliospheric Lyman-alpha excess is consistent with a heliospheric origin.

Abstract

The Voyagers (V) 1 and 2 Ultraviolet Spectrometers (UVS) data harvest covers outer planets encounters, heliosphere sky-background measurements, and stellar spectrophotometry. Because their operation period overlaps with many ultraviolet missions, the V1 and V2 UVS calibration with other spectrometers are invaluable. Here we revisit the UVS calibration to assess the intriguing 243 % (V1) and 156 % (V2) sensitivity enhancements recently proposed. Using the Saturn Lyman-$\alpha$ airglow, observed in-situ by both Voyagers, and remotely by IUE, we match the Voyager values to IUE, taking into account the shape of the Saturn Lyman-$\alpha$ line observed with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph onboard the Hubble Space Telescope. For all known ranges of the interplanetary hydrogen density, we show that the V1 and V2 UVS sensitivities cannot be enhanced by the amounts thus far proposed. The same diagnostic holds for distinct channels covering the diffuse HeI 58.4 nm emission. Our prescription is to keep the original calibration of the Voyager UVS with a maximum uncertainty of 30 %, making both instruments some of the most stable EUV/FUV spectrographs of the history of space exploration. In that frame, we reassess the Lyman-$\alpha$ emission excess detected by Voyager UVS deep in the heliosphere, to show its consistency with the heliospheric but not the galactic origin. Our finding confirms results obtained nearly two decades ago--namely, the UVS discovery of the heliosphere distortion and the corresponding local interstellar magnetic field's obliquity ($\sim40^{\circ}$ from upwind) in the solar system neighborhood-- without requiring any revision of the Voyager UVS calibration.