UVIS/HDAC Lyman-alpha observations of the geocorona during Cassini's Earth swingby compared to model prediction

Abstract The Hydrogen Deuterium Absorption Cell (HDAC) is part of the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) experiment aboard the Cassini spacecraft. During Cassini’s Earth swingby on August 18, 1999, HDAC was used as a photometer to measure solar Lyman-α radiation scattered by the neutral hydrogen atoms of the geocorona. These data provide information about the hydrogen column density along HDAC’s line of sight during the Earth swingby. The data cover a large part of the Earth’s exosphere and enable us to determine the distribution of hydrogen atoms in this region. The results are compared to predictions of models providing hydrogen densities of the Earth’s exosphere/geocorona. We found that the models overestimate the decrease of hydrogen density for increasing distance from the Earth.