Isotopic composition of solar wind neon measured by CELIAS/MTOF on board SOHO

Abstract

We present first results taken from the high-resolution mass time-of-flight spectrometer (MTOF) of the charge, element, and isotope analysis system (CELIAS) experiment on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft launched in December 1995, concerning the abundance ratios of neon isotopes in the solar wind. We obtain the isotopic ratios 20Ne/22Ne = (13.8 ± 0.7) and 20Ne/21 Ne = (440 ± 110), which agree with the values obtained from the Apollo foil solar wind experiments and which have been derived from measurements of solar particles implanted in lunar and meteoritic samples. Copyright 1997 by the American Geophysical Union.