地球磁层软X射线信号的辐射特性研究

Advances in soft X-ray emission of the Earth’s magnetosphere

太阳风-磁层耦合和地球空间的动力学过程是空间天气的基本驱动要素,在系统尺度上认知这些过程对于空间物理和空间天气的研究至关重要.太阳风电荷交换(solar wind charge exchange, SWCX)机制的提出,为磁层大尺度特性研究提供了一种全新的探测方式,即地球磁层的软X射线成像. SWCX发生在太阳风中的高价态重离子(例如C^(6+)、N^(7+)、O^(7+)、O^(8+)等)和中性原子或分子(例如地球空间中的中性氢原子,日球层中的中性氢原子和氦原子,彗星和其它行星上的水分子、CO_(2)等)发生碰撞时.太阳风离子得到一个或多个电子后进入激发态,随后在回到基态的过程中释放出一个或多个软X射线波段的光子.地球磁层的SWCX软X射线辐射主要发生在日侧的磁鞘和极尖区,因此利用软X射线大范围成像技术可以对磁层进行远距离全景成像,从而在大尺度上认知太阳风-磁层相互作用的基本模式.在此背景下,中欧联合空间科学卫星计划太阳风-磁层相互作用全景成像卫星(Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, SMILE)得到立项和实施. SMILE卫星将针对日下点附近区域的磁层顶、弓激波、部分极尖区和地球极光进行成像探测,同时对太阳风等离子体和磁场进行原位测量. SMILE卫星计划于2024—2025年发射.本文将阐述地球磁层软X射线辐射的机制、回顾磁层软X射线辐射观测证据及辐射特性方面的研究、总结磁层信号的模拟仿真进展、介绍磁层成像探测计划,并提出未来行星磁层软X射线成像探测的概念.

The coupling between solar wind and the magnetosphere and the dynamic processes in geo-space are the basic driving factors of space weather. Understanding these processes on the system level is essential to the studies of space physics and space weather. Recent solar wind charge exchange(SWCX) X-ray emission discoveries provide a novel approach to detect the large-scale magnetosphere through soft X-ray imaging. SWCX occurs when high-charge heavy ions such as C^(6+)、N^(7+)、O^(7+),andO^(8+)in the solar wind interact with neutral atoms or molecules, such as neutral hydrogen atoms in near-Earth space, neutral hydrogen and helium atoms in the heliosphere,and H_(2)O and CO_(2)molecules on comets and other planets. Solar wind ions become excited by receiving one or more electrons, and then return to the ground state by releasing one or more photons in the soft X-ray band. The characteristics of the SWCX emissions include the X-ray spectrum showing line emissions corresponding to different species of solar wind particles and neutrons, and fast time variations closely related to solar wind variations. The SWCX soft X-ray emission of the Earth’s magnetosphere mainly occurs in the magnetosheath on the dayside and the cusp regions. Therefore, the magnetosphere can be remotely imaged using large-scale soft X-ray imaging technology, allowing the fundamental modes of the interaction between the solar wind and magnetosphere to be recognized on a systematic scale.In this context, the European Space Agency(ESA) and Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS) jointly proposed the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer(SMILE). SMILE was approved in 2016 and implemented thereafter. SMILE aims to provide remote sensing measurements of the magnetopause and bow shock around the subsolar region, part of the cusp regions, and the aurora, as well as simultaneous in situ observations of the solar wind plasma and magnetic field. SMILE is planned to be launched in 2024–2025. Other missions have also been proposed to image the Earth’s magnetosphere, such as the GEOspace X-ray imager(GEO-X) in Japan,Lunar Environment heliospherics X-ray Imager(LEXI) in the United States, and Lunar-based soft X-ray imager(LSXI) in China.With the advent of soft X-ray imaging missions to detect the magnetopause, evaluating the expected soft Xray images and developing appropriate techniques to extract 3-dimentional boundary information from the 2-dimentional images is essential. Global magnetohydrodynamic(MHD) and instrument simulations are used to generate expected X-ray images under different solar wind conditions with different viewing geometries. Based on these images, several approaches have been developed to analyze the signals, composing the ’arsenal’ or ’toolkit’ for magnetopause reconstruction. Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages, applicable to different situations.This paper introduces the mechanism of magnetospheric X-ray emission, reviews the research on the observational evidence and characteristics of SWCX X-ray emissions, summarizes the progress of simulation studies,presents the missions(or concept) of the magnetospheric X-ray detection, and discusses the possibility of future implementation of X-ray imaging for detecting other planets.