Interstellar flow longitude from pickup ion cut-off observations at 1 AU with STEREO and ACE

Abstract

A precision determination of the interstellar neutral (ISN) flow direction is important in several ways. As a cardinal axis of the heliosphere it has strong leverage on the plane subtended by the ISN velocity and interstellar magnetic field vector, which controls the shape of the heliosphere and its interaction with the interstellar medium. Continuing observations of the ISN flow through the heliosphere for several decades allow the search for potential temporal variations of the ISN flow and comparison with astronomical observations. Recent efforts to obtain a consistent ISN vector and temperature with Ulysses and IBEX neutral gas observations point to remaining uncertainties and potential systematic effects. In particular, IBEX measurements provide a very precise relation between ISN flow longitude and speed via the hyperbolic trajectory equation, but they contain larger uncertainties along the parameter tube defined by this relation. The pickup ion (PUI) cut-off variation with ecliptic longitude at 1 AU can provide a complementary determination of the ISN flow longitude with high precision. We compare STEREO PLASTIC and ACE SWICS observations with a simple analytical model of the cut-off. We perform a Pearson correlation analysis of the cut-off as a function of ecliptic longitude with its mirrored function and obtain the symmetry axis with a statistical uncertainty <0.1°. Here we test variations of this value due to Poisson fluctuations in the original data with simulations and due to systematic effects with multi year and location ACE SWICS and STEREO PLASTIC samples.