Interstellar Pickup Hydrogen Observations from the Pioneer 10 and 11 Plasma Analyzers
The Pioneer 10 and 11 Ames plasma analyzers included off-angle integrating counters used for the first exploration of magnetospheric plasmas at Jupiter and Saturn. When summed over multi-day intervals during interplanetary cruise, at times of relatively constant solar wind speed during 1972 to 1977, the resulting count rates show a dependence on acceptance energies of the plasma analyzer deflection plates. The count rates could be produced by energetic charged particles, solar wind protons moving at a large angle to the bulk flow, and interstellar pickup ions. We interpret the more energetic of two peaks that are sometimes observed as the signature of interstellar pickup hydrogen. This peak is located at just below twice the solar wind speed (V(sub SW)), when near 3 AU heliocentric distance, decreasing to just above V(sub SW) as the heliocentric distance increases. Also, in the 8 to 12 AU range of heliocentric distances, we identify the pickup hydrogen signature as a shelf that ends at an edge located below 2V(sub SW). During these observations, the spacecraft longitude relative to the upstream interstellar flow changes roughly from 25 deg, to 155 deg at the larger heliocentric distance. The peak at the smaller heliocentric distances is most consistent with a velocity distribution that is a shell in phase space, with limited thickening as the pickup ions are assimilated into the solar wind flow.