双重电流片和日冕瞬变

当背景磁场在日冕中存在零磁场线时,反向新磁通量的喷发将会产生双重电流片,包括零场区附近的磁场受到挤压而形成的横向电流片和新喷发场、原背景场之间形成的拱形电流片、本文用一对线偶极子来模拟背景场,用一对线磁荷来模拟反向喷发场,讨论了上述双重电流片的形成和演变过程。在电流片形成过程中,物质将向电流片集中。拱形电流片物质主要来自过渡层和光球层,并通过辐射损失进一步冷却,形成低温日珥环;横向电流片的物质则全部来自日冕,从而形成高温日冕环。以上结果可用来解释1984年4月14日观测到的日冕瞬变。     

The Influence of Ion-Acoustic Turbulence on the Electron Acceleration in the Reconnecting Current Sheet

Through solving the single electron equation of motion and the Fokker-Planck equation including the terms of electric field strength and ion-acoustic turbulence, we study the influence of the ion-acoustic wave on the electron acceleration in turbulent reconnecting current sheets. It is shown that the ion-acoustic turbulence which causes plasma heating rather than particle acceleration should be considered. With typical parameter values, the acceleration time scale is around the order of 10^-6 s, the accelerated electrons may have approximately a power-law distribution in the energy range 20 ～100 keV and the spectral index is about 3～10, which is basically consistent with the observed hard X-ray spectra in solar flares.     

Electron Acceleration in Reconnecting Current Sheets

We present the results of charged particle orbit calculations in prescribed electric and magnetic fields motivated by magnetic reconnection models. Due to the presence of a strong guide field, the particle orbits can be calculated in the guiding centre approximation. The electromagnetic fields are chosen to resemble a reconnecting magnetic current sheet with a localised reconnection region. An initially Maxwellian distribution function in the inflow region can develop a beam-like component in the outflow region. Possible implications of these findings for acceleration scenarios in solar flares will be discussed.     

Further Constraints on Electron Acceleration in Solar Noise Storms

We reexamine the energetics of nonthermal-electron acceleration in solar noise storms. A new result is obtained for the minimum nonthermal-electron number density required to produce a Langmuir-wave population of sufficient intensity to power the noise-storm emission. We combine this constraint with the stochastic electron acceleration formalism developed by Subramanian and Becker (2005) to derive a rigorous estimate for the efficiency of the overall noise-storm emission process, beginning with nonthermal-electron acceleration and culminating in the observed radiation. We also calculate separate efficiencies for the electron acceleration–Langmuir wave generation stage and the Langmuir wave–noise-storm production stage. In addition, we obtain a new theoretical estimate for the energy density of the Langmuir waves in noise-storm continuum sources.     

Constraints on the Regimes of Electron Acceleration in Solar Flares

Astronomy Letters - Based on the observations of microwave impulsive bursts recorded at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory, we have obtained constraints on the regimes of electron acceleration in solar...     

Solar Impulsive Hard X-Ray Emission and Two-Stage Electron Acceleration

Heating and acceleration of electrons in solar impulsive hard X-ray (HXR) flares are studied according to the two-stage acceleration model developed by Zhang for solar 3He-rich events. It is shown that electrostatic H-cyclotron waves can be excited at a parallel phase velocity less than about the electron thermal velocity and thus can significantly heat the electrons (up to 40 MK) through Landau resonance. The preheated electrons with velocities above a threshold are further accelerated to high energies in the flare-acceleration process. The flare-produced electron spectrum is obtained and shown to be thermal at low energies and power law at high energies. In the non-thermal energy range, the spectrum can be double power law if the spectral power index is energy dependent or related. The electron energy spectrum obtained by this study agrees quantitatively with the result derived from the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) HXR observations in the flare of 2002 July 23. The total flux and energy flux of electrons accelerated in the solar flare also agree with the measurements.     

Study of Multiple Coronal Mass Ejections at Solar Minimum Conditions

Solar activity alternates between active and quiet phases with an average period of 11?years, and this is known as the Schwabe cycle. Additionally, solar activity occasionally falls into a prolonged quiet phase (grand solar minimum), as represented by the Maunder Minimum in the 17th century, when sunspots were almost absent for 70?years and the length of the Schwabe cycle increased to 14?years. To examine the consistency of the cycle length characteristics during the grand solar minima, the carbon-14 contents in single-year tree rings were measured using an accelerator mass spectrometer as an index of the solar variability during the grand solar minimum of the 4th century BC. The signal of the Schwabe cycle was detected with a statistical confidence level of higher than 95?% by wavelet analysis. This is the oldest evidence for the Schwabe cycle at the present time, and the cycle length is considered to have increased to approximately 16?years during the grand solar minimum of the 4th century BC. This result confirms the association between the increase of the Schwabe cycle length and the weakening of solar activity, and indicates the possible prolonged absence of sunspots in the 4th century BC as during the Maunder Minimum. Theoretical implications from solar dynamo theory are discussed in order to identify the trigger of prolonged sunspot absence. A possible association between the long-term solar variation around the 4th century BC and terrestrial cooling in this period is also discussed.     

宁静日冕和冕洞研究现状

主要论述宁静日冕洞，以及日冕加热问题的研究现状。讨论了宁静日冕的理论模型、观测模型和混合模型，以及冕洞区大气模型和太阳风加热问题。最后对计划中的日冕空间探测作了简要介绍。     

Particle Acceleration in Reconnecting Current Sheets in Impulsive Electron-Rich Solar Flares

Electron and proton acceleration in reconnecting current sheets in electron-rich solar flares is considered. A significant three-dimensional magnetic field is assumed in the current sheet where the particles are accelerated by the DC electric field. The tearing instability of a pre-flare current sheet leads to the formation of multiple singular lines of magnetic field where the electric and magnetic fields are coaligned. Magnetized electrons are shown to be accelerated to a few tens of MeV before they leave the vicinity of a singular line. The acceleration time is estimated to be less than 10^–3 s. By contrast, much heavier protons are unmagnetized and their energy gain is more modest. The model explains a high electron-to-proton ratio and the unusually intense gamma-ray continuum above 1 MeV observed in the electron-rich flares.     

Transit Time of Coronal Mass Ejections under Different Ambient Solar Wind Conditions

The speed [v(R)] of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) at various distances from the Sun is modeled (as proposed by Vr?nak and Gopalswamy in J. Geophys. Res. 107, 2002, doi: 10.1029/2001/JA000120 ) by using the equation of motion a _drag=γ(v?w) and its quadratic form a _drag=γ(v?w)|v?w|, where v and w are the speeds of the CME and solar wind, respectively. We assume that the parameter γ can be expressed as γ=αR ^β , where R is the heliocentric distance, and α and β are constants. We extend the analysis of Vr?nak and Gopalswamy to obtain a more detailed insight into the dependence of the CME Sun–Earth transit time on the CME speed and the ambient solar-wind speed, for different combinations of α and β. In such a parameter-space analysis, the results obtained confirm that the CME transit time depends strongly on the state of the ambient solar wind. Specifically, we found that: i) for a particular set of values of α and β, a difference in the solar-wind speed causes larger transit-time differences at low CME speeds [v ₀], than at high v ₀; ii) the difference between transit times of slow and fast CMEs is larger at low solar-wind speed [w ₀] than at high w ₀; iii) transit times of fast CMEs are only slightly influenced by the solar-wind speed. The last item is especially important for space-weather forecasting, since it reduces the number of key parameters that determine the arrival time of fast CMEs, which tend to be more geo-effective than the slow ones. Finally, we compared the drag-based model results with the observational data for two CME samples, consisting of non-interacting and interacting CMEs (Manoharan et al. in J. Geophys. Res. 109, 2004). The comparison reveals that the model results are in better agreement with the observations for non-interacting events than for the interacting events. It was also found that for slow CMEs (v ₀<500 km?s^?1), there is a deviation between the observations and the model if slow-wind speeds (≈?300?–?400 km?s^?1) are taken for the model input. On the other hand, the model values and the observed data agree for both the slow and the fast CMEs if higher solar-wind speeds are assumed. It is also found that the quadratic form of the drag equation reproduces the observed transit times of fast CMEs better than the linear drag model.     

Fast Solar Wind Velocity in a Polar Coronal Hole during Solar Minimum

We present a study of the outflow velocity of the fast wind in the northern polar coronal hole observed on 21 May 1996, during the minimum of solar activity, in the frame of a joint observing program of the SOHO (Solar Heliospheric Observatory) mission. The outflow velocity is inferred from an analysis of the Doppler dimming of the intensities of the Ovi 1032, 1037 and Hi L 1216 lines observed between 1.5 R and 3.5 R with the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS), operating onboard SOHO. The analysis shows that for a coronal plasma characterized by low density, as derived for a polar hole at solar minimum by Guhathakurta et al. (1999), and low temperature, as directly measured at the base of this coronal hole by David et al. (1998), the oxygen outflow speed derived spectroscopically is consistent with that implied by the proton flux conservation. The hydrogen outflow is also consistent with flux conservation if the deviation from isotropy of the velocity distribution of the hydrogen atoms is negligible. Hence, for this cool and tenuous corona, the oxygen ions and neutral hydrogen atoms flow outward roughly at the same speed, which increases from 40 km s^–1 at 1.5 R to 360 km s^–1 at 3.1 R , with an average acceleration of the order of 4.5×10³ cm s^–2. The highly anisotropic velocity distributions of the Ovi ions found in the analysis confirm that the process which is heating the oxygen ions acts preferentially across the magnetic field.     

Modeling of Proton Acceleration in a Magnetic Island Inside the Ripple of the Heliospheric Current Sheet

Crossings of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) at the Earth’s orbit are often associated with observations of anisotropic beams of energetic protons accelerated to energies from hundreds of keV to several MeV and above. A connection between this phenomenon and the occurrence of small-scale magnetic islands (SMIs) near reconnecting current sheets has recently been found. This study shows how pre-accelerated protons can be energized additionally due to oscillations of multiple SMIs inside the ripple of the reconnecting HCS. A model of the electromagnetic field of an oscillating 3D SMI with a characteristic size of ~0.001 AU is developed. A SMI is supposed to be bombarded by protons accelerated by magnetic reconnection at the HCS to energies from ~1keV to tens of keV. Numerical simulations have demonstrated that the resulting longitudinal inductive electric fields can additionally reaccelerate protons injected into a SMI. It is shown that there is a local “acceleration” region within the island in which particles gain energy most effectively. As a result, their average escape energies range from hundreds of keV to 2 MeV and above. There is almost no particle acceleration outside the region. It is shown that energies gained by protons significantly depend on the initial phase and the place of their entry into a SMI but weakly depend on the initial energy. Therefore, low-energy particles can be accelerated more efficiently than high-energy particles, and all particles can reach the total energy limit upon their escape from a SMI. It is also found that the escape velocity possesses a strong directional anisotropy. The results are consistent with observations in the solar wind plasma.

     

Magnetic Relaxation and Particle Acceleration in a Flaring Twisted Coronal Loop

In the present work we aim to study particle acceleration in twisted coronal loops. For this purpose, an MHD model of magnetic reconnection in a linearly unstable twisted magnetic fluxtube is considered. Further, the electric and magnetic fields obtained in the MHD simulations are used to calculate proton and electron trajectories in the guiding-centre approximation. It is shown that particle acceleration in such a model is distributed rather uniformly along the coronal loop and the high-energy population remains generally neutral. It also follows from the model that the horizontal cross-section of the volume occupied by high-energy particles near the loop footpoints increases with time, which can be used as an observational proxy.     

日冕物质抛射的中性电流片及边源辐射对

利用日本阳光卫星上的软X-射线望远镜、硬X-射线望远镜和野边山射电日像仪1998年4月23日观测资料,对软X-射线日冕物质抛射和射电Ⅳ型爆发进行了综合研究,获得了下列有意义的结果.在2个磁偶极源之间发现了磁容带和少数的激活源.激活源将磁容带变成磁能带的过程,正是中性电流片的形成过程以及激发能量和发亮物质向它集中的过程.当2个磁偶极源被磁能带接通时,则中性电流片形成,并且发生软X-射线日冕物质抛射.物质抛射不仅从中性电流片处升起,也从整个磁能带上升起.软X-射线日冕物质抛射环具有2个足点,它们正是2个磁偶极源.膨胀环的头总是倾向于弱源的足点,因为它是来自2个足点磁压的平衡点.因此它的轨迹是中性线,由中性线便可确定中性电流片的位置.最后,发现了磁能带上中性电流片的边源辐射对.     

Solar Coronal Plasma in Doppler Measurements

Doppler tracking of an interplanetary spacecraft near solar conjunction is strongly affected by the plasma in the solar corona, the main competitive contribution in measurements of the gravitational deflection of light rays. With the simultaneous availability of carriers in X band and K_a band for interplanetary communications, the plasma contribution to the corona can be accurately eliminated and measured. If, as in the Cassini mission, three different observables are available, this can be done in two ways: one deals with the total plasma content in the electric approximation, even in the ionosphere and interplanetary space; another is limited to the corona, but has access to subtler effects, like the magnetic correction to the refractive index. This technique will allow important progress in the radio investigation of the solar corona.     

Heavy Ion Abundances in Impulsive Solar Flares: Influence of Pre-Acceleration in a Current Sheet

Competition between stochastic energy gains and collisional energy losses is known to lead to preferential acceleration of heavy ions in flare loops. Ion acceleration in a reconnecting current sheet is shown to mitigate the influence of collisional energy losses on stochastic particle acceleration in impulsive solar flares. This effect decreases the sensitivity of the resulting abundance ratios on initial ion charge states. The resulting abundances are determined by the fact that the energy loss rate falls off rapidly with increasing energy. As an example, the expected Fe/O enhancement ratios are computed and shown to be comparable with those observed with ACE SEPICA in several impulsive flares in 1998. One consequence of the model is that the preferential acceleration of heavy ions can occur only when the plasma gas pressure is large enough, m _e/m _p, which may explain the observed correlation between the heavy ion enrichment and selective ³He acceleration in impulsive flares.     

Geoeffective Analysis of CMEs Under Current Sheet Magnetic Coordinates

Using 100 CME–ICME events during 1997.01–2002.11, based on the eruptive source locations of CMEs and solar magnetic field observations at the photosphere, a current sheet magnetic coordinate (CMC) system is established in order to statistically study the characteristics of the CME–ICME events and the corresponding geomagnetic storm intensity. The transit times of CMEs from the Sun to the Earth are also investigated, by taking into account of the angle between the CME eruption normal (defined as the vector from the Sun center to the CME eruption source) and the Sun-Earth line. Our preliminary conclusions are: 1. The distribution of the CME sources in our CMC system is obviously different from that in the ordinary heliographic coordinate system. The sources of CMEs are mainly centralized near the heliospheric current sheet (HCS), and the number of events decreases with the increment of the angular distance from the CME source to the HCS on the solar surface; 2. A large portion of the total events belong to the same–side events (referring to the CME source located on the same side of the HCS as the Earth), while only a small portion belong to the opposite–side events (the CME source located on the opposite side of the HCS as the Earth). 3. The intense geomagnetic storms are usually induced by the same–side events, while the opposite side events are commonly associated with relatively weak geomagnetic storms; 4. The angle between the CME normal and the Sun–Earth line is used to estimate the transit time of the CME in order to reflect the influence of propagation characteristic of the CME along the Sun–Earth direction. With our new prediction method in context of the CMC coordinate, the averaged absolute error for these 100 events is 10.33 hours and the resulting relative error is not larger than 30% for 91% of all the events.     

Influence of the Variations of Current Sheet Parameters on the Acceleration of Electrons

By the test particle method, we have investigated the kinematic characteristics of the electrons in the reconnecting current sheet with a guiding magnetic field B_z after they are accelerated by the supper-Dreicer electric field E_z. Firstly, the influence of the guiding magnetic field B_z on the particle acceleration is discussed under the assumption that B_z is constant in magnitude but different in orientation with respect to the electric field. In this case, the variation of the B_z direction directly leads to the variation of electron trajectories and makes electrons leave the current sheet along different paths. If B_z is parallel to E_z, the pitch angles of the accelerated electrons are close to 180°. If B_z is anti-parallel to E_z, the pitch angles of the accelerated electrons are close to 0°. The orientation of the guiding magnetic field just makes the electric field accelerate selectively the electrons in different regions, but does not change the energy distribution of electrons, and the finally derived energy spectrum is the common power-law spectrum E^?γ. In typical coronal conditions, γ is about 2.9. The further study indicates that the magnitude of γ depends on the strengths of the guiding magnetic field and reconnecting electric field, as well as the scale of the current sheet. Then, the kinematic characteristics of the accelerated electrons in the current sheet with multiple X-points and O-points are also studied. The result indicates that the existences of the X-points and O-points have the particles constrained in the accelerating region to obtain the maximum acceleration, and the final energy spectrum has the characteristics of multi-power law spectra.     

Fragmentation of the Current Sheet,Anomalous Resistivity,and Acceleration of Particles

The evolution of the current sheet in the electric current direction (in the guiding magnetic field direction) is studied numerically in the 3-D particle-in-cell model with two current sheets and periodic boundary conditions. In the regime with (where v _D and are the electric current drift and electron thermal velocities, respectively) the current sheets are unstable owing to the Buneman and kink instabilities and become strongly fragmented. During their evolution, in addition to an increase of the energy of the electric field component in the guiding magnetic field direction, the energies of the electric field components in the perpendicular direction are even more enhanced. In the current sheet the anomalous resistivity (η _anom/η _C∼7×10⁵, where η _C is the classical resistivity) is generated and thus the magnetic field dissipates. Most of the dissipated magnetic energy is transformed into the electron kinetic energy in the direction of the electric current. The associated electric field accelerates the electrons from the tail of the distribution function.     

Electron Acceleration in the Corona

The series of nine impulsive, highly collimated beams of near-relativistic electrons seen by ACE/EPAM on 26 and 27 June 2004 occurred at a quiet time with respect to solar flare and CME production. However, they were accompanied by decametric type III radio bursts observed by WIND/WAVES, which had progressively higher starting frequencies, suggestive of coronal acceleration. There were no CMEs seen by SOHO/LASCO in association with any of the type III bursts except possibly the first. The energy spectrum of the electrons was soft, typically E^−4.5 but extended up to at least ∼200 keV. We suggest that the source region for these events is in the high corona. We discuss this result in the context of solar electron acceleration at other times.