Boundary Detection in Three Dimensions With Application to the SMILE Mission: The Effect of Model-Fitting Noise

The magnetosheath and near‐Earth solar wind emit X‐rays due to charge‐exchange between the extended atmosphere and highly ionized particles in the solar wind. These emissions can be used to remotely sense the dynamic processes in this region. The Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer mission will carry out these measurements. In a previous paper, we looked at the effect of photon counting statistics on determining the location of the magnetopause and bow shock. In this paper we explore, through simulations, the more challenging question of orbital viewing geometry bias when the model and the emissions do not match each other exactly. Our simulations conclude that while care must be taken to avoid false minima in the fitting, there is very little to no orbital bias in extracting the position and large‐scale shape of the magnetopause and bow shocks from 2‐D X‐ray images from the future Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer mission.