We study the behaviour of shocked wind-electrons leaving wind-driving stars after undergoing the outer wind termination shock. As an example, we describe the evolution of the keV-energetic electron distribution function downstream of the heliospheric termination shock. We start from a kinetic transport equation in the bulk frame of the heliosheath plasma flow taking into account shock-induced electron injection, convective changes, cooling processes, and whistler wave-induced energy diffusion. From this equation we proceed to an associated pressure moment of the electron distribution function arriving at a corresponding pressure transport equation which describes the evolution of the electron pressure in the bulk frame of the plasma along the plasma flow lines. We assume that the local distribution function, in view of the prevailing non-LTE conditions, is represented by a local kappa function with local kappa parameters that vary with the streamline coordinate s downstream of the solar wind termination shock. We obtain the solution for the electron pressure as a function of the streamline coordinate s from the pressure transport equation and demonstrate that, connected with this pressure, one obtains an expression for the entropy of the electron fluid which can also be derived as a streamline function. We show that the heliosheath electron fluid can essentially be characterized as an isobaric and isentropic flow. These results allow to generally conclude that astrotail plasma flows are characterized as such flows.

In a most recent paper by Qin andWaldrop (2016), it had been found that the scale height of hydrogen in the upper exosphere of the Earth, especially during solar minimum conditions, appears to be surprisingly large. This indicates that during minimum conditions when exobasic temperatures should be small, large exospheric H-scale heights predominate. They thus seem to indicate the presence of a non-thermal hydrogen component in the upper exosphere. In the following parts of the paper we shall investigate what fraction of such expected hot hydrogen atoms could have their origin from protons of the shocked solar wind ahead of the magnetopause converted into energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) via charge-exchange processes with normal atmospheric, i.e., exospheric hydrogen atoms that in the first step evaporate from the exobase into the magnetosheath plasma region. We shall show that, dependent on the sunward location of the magnetopause, the density of these types of non-thermal hydrogen atoms (H-ENAs) becomes progressively comparable with the density of exobasic hydrogen with increasing altitude. At low exobasic heights, however, their contribution is negligible. At the end of this paper, we finally study the question of whether the H-ENA population could even be understood as a self-consistency phenomenon of the H-ENA population, especially during solar activity minimum conditions, i.e., H-ENAs leaving the exosphere being replaced by H-ENAs injected into the exosphere.

The Cassini/Huygens mission was launched in October 1997, and during the third orbit around Saturn, the Huygens probe was released on course to enter Titan's atmosphere. During the descent, six science instruments provided in situ and remote sensing measurements of Titan's atmosphere and surface. Doppler tracking was performed with two Earth-based radio telescopes, and a Very Long Base Interferometry (VLBI) experiment was carried out. Data acquisition began around 1500km altitude and continued throughout the 2h and 30min descent and for 1h and 12min after landing. This unique set of data is available in the ESA Planetary Science Archive (PSA) and mirror imaged in the NASA Planetary Data System (PDS). This paper presents an overview of the process the Huygens Data Archiving Working Group followed to develop and ingest the data set. A description of the data sets is also given.

Coordinated ground‐based observations of Titan were performed around or during the Huygens atmospheric probe mission at Titan on 14 January 2005, connecting the momentary in situ observations by the probe with the synoptic coverage provided by continuing ground‐based programs. These observations consisted of three different categories: (1) radio telescope tracking of the Huygens signal at 2040 MHz, (2) observations of the atmosphere and surface of Titan, and (3) attempts to observe radiation emitted during the Huygens Probe entry into Titan's atmosphere. The Probe radio signal was successfully acquired by a network of terrestrial telescopes, recovering a vertical profile of wind speed in Titan's atmosphere from 140 km altitude down to the surface. Ground‐based observations brought new information on atmosphere and surface properties of the largest Saturnian moon. No positive detection of phenomena associated with the Probe entry was reported. This paper reviews all these measurements and highlights the achieved results. The ground‐based observations, both radio and optical, are of fundamental importance for the interpretation of results from the Huygens mission.

Evidence for a marginal detection of the Titan ionosphere has been obtained from a new analysis of the dual-frequency Doppler data recorded during theVoyager 1occultation in 1980. The original report by Lindalet al.(1983,Icarus53,348–363) gave only upper bounds on the peak electron density of 3000 cm−3during ingress (evening terminator) and 5000 cm−3during egress (morning terminator). The dual-frequency ingress data imply a maximum electron density of 2400 ± 1100 cm−3for Titan's upper ionosphere at an altitude of 1180 ± 150 km. The egress data were determined to be of limited use for this analysis because the X-band signal was received for only a few seconds. Nevertheless, a distinct ionospheric peak is revealed in the S-band data for both ingress and egress. The height and peak density of this ionized layer are in good agreement with expectations from numerical models that invoke photoionization and energetic electron impacts.