Time and latitude dependence of the solar wind mass flux derived from the SOHO/SWAN data analysis
Résumé
We present an updated analysis of the complete SOHO/SWAN Lyman-α dataset spanning from 1996 to 2011. We calculate the total interstellar hydrogen ionization rates as a function of latitude and time by fitting a hot model to the calibrated SWAN maps. The ionization is produced mainly by charge exchange with the solar wind ions. We normalize the derived rates to the ecliptic measured values of solar wind charge exchange rates from in-situ data, combined with photoionization rates derived by EUV data. We derive the solar wind mass flux distribution and discuss the results.