Eberhard Moebius

My research interest is centered on the acceleration of particles in and their transport through the heliosphere with the help of composition sensing ion and neutral atom sensors. Using pickup ions in the solar wind (SOHO, ACE, and STEREO) and energetic neutral atoms that originate in the interstellar gas and in the heliospheric boundary regions (IBEX), we are studying the inflow of interstellar gas into the solar system, its interaction with the solar wind, and further acceleration of its products to higher energy. With these tools we scope out the outermost shield of the Earth against cosmic rays and lay the groundwork to understanding short and long time variations of the heliosphere. In addition, interstellar and inner source pickup ions form a suprathermal particle population that serves as an effective source for the generation of energetic particles at interplanetary shocks, which contribute significantly to the energetic particle environment of the Earth.