Absorption of the Lyman-$\alpha$ radiation in the heliosphere

TL;DR

This paper develops a method to estimate and incorporate the absorption of solar Lyman-$\\alpha$ radiation by interstellar hydrogen in heliospheric models, revealing up to 8% impact on observed signals.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach to quantify and include Lyman-$\alpha$ absorption effects in heliospheric gas distribution simulations.

Findings

Absorption can alter the radiation pressure by up to 3%.

Absorption effects can modify IBEX-Lo flux simulations by up to 8%.

The method provides parameters for modeling absorption under mean solar activity.

Abstract

Absorption of the Lyman-$\alpha$ radiation on Interstellar Neutral Hydrogen (ISN H) atoms in the heliosphere is a potentially important effect to account for in precise gas distribution simulations. In this paper we develop a method to estimate the magnitude of absorption of solar Lyman-$\alpha$ radiation inside the solar wind termination shock and to include absorption effects in the Warsaw Test Particle Model (WTPM) by an appropriate modification of radiation pressure. We perform calculations of absorption effects on a 3D grid in the heliosphere and present a set of parameters to model absorption effects for the mean solar activity conditions. We show that absorption can change up to 3% depending on the solar activity level. Using a modified version of WTPM, we calculate the expected signal from IBEX-Lo and show that absorption may modify the simulated flux up to 8%.