ASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) satellite collects data on energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) that can provide insight into the heliosphere boundary between our solar system and interstellar space. Using these data, scientists can construct maps of the ENA intensities (often, expressed in terms of flux) observed in all directions. The ENA flux observed in these maps is believed to come from at least two distinct sources: one source which manifests as a ribbon of concentrated ENA flux and one source (or possibly several) that manifest as smoothly-varying globally-distributed flux. Each ENA source type and its corresponding ENA intensity map is of separate scientific interest. In this paper, we develop statistical methods for separating the total ENA intensity maps into two source-specific maps (ribbon and globally-distributed flux) and estimating corresponding uncertainty. Key advantages of the proposed method include enhanced model flexibility and improved propagation of estimation uncertainty. We evaluate the proposed methods on simulated data designed to mimic realistic data settings. We also propose new methods for estimating the center of the near-elliptical ribbon in the sky, which can be used in the future to study the location and variation of the local interstellar magnetic field.

翻译：美国国家航空航天局（NASA）的星际边界探测器（IBEX）卫星收集高能中性原子（ENA）数据，这些数据可为太阳系与星际空间之间的日球层边界提供重要见解。通过这类数据，科学家能够绘制出各个方向观测到的ENA强度（通常以通量表示）分布图。这些图谱中观测到的ENA通量被认为至少源自两种不同来源：一种表现为高浓度ENA通量构成的带状结构，另一种（或多种）则表现为平滑变化的全球分布通量。每种ENA来源类型及其对应的ENA强度图具有独立的科学价值。本文开发了统计方法，用于将总ENA强度图分解为两类源专属图（带状分布通量和全球分布通量），并估算相应的不确定性。所提出方法的核心优势包括增强模型灵活性和改进估计不确定性的传播。我们通过模拟真实数据场景的合成数据评估了所提方法。此外，我们还提出了估算天空中近似椭圆形带状中心的新方法，可用于未来研究局地星际磁场的位置与变化特征。