Magnetopause Surface Reconstruction From Tangent Vector Observations

Abstract

Entire fields of science, most notably in astrophysics, rely on line-of-sight observations. In planetary science and heliophysics, the techniques of soft X-ray and energetic neutral atom imaging also produce line-of-sight measurements. An important question is whether the geometry of the surface, for example, the magnetopause, can be reconstructed using only line-of-sight observations from a single spacecraft. Under a broad range of conditions, the peak emission corresponds to the tangent to the boundary surface, such as the planetary surface or magnetopause, the so-called limb brightening phenomenon. Thus, line-of-sight observations frequently provide information concerning the tangent to the surfaces being observed. We present an algorithm to reconstruct the cross section of the magnetopause using line-of-sight soft X-ray observations (and, in principle, energetic neutral atom observations). The algorithm successfully reconstructs the cross section of the magnetopause in the orbit plane. The three-dimensional magnetopause structure can be recovered from observations by a spacecraft whose orbit precesses around the magnetosphere.