A Numerical Study on the Ion Acceleration in Parallel Shock Wave

Accompanied by flares and coronal mass ejections, the symbiotic coronal and interplanetary fast shock waves have become a hot topic in particle acceleration. Under the condition of quasi-parallel propagation, we construct a numerical method of solving one-dimensional transport equation, and thereby exploring the physical relationships between the distribution of the accelerated ions and the parameters of the shock waves and background plasmas. Considering the diffusive coefficient as a constant and a function of energy, respectively, the results of calculations of finite free escape boundaries show that (1) the energetic particles approximately exhibit a double power-law distribution and the spectral index decreases gradually from 10.2 to 2.4 in the low energy region of 3-10MeV with the increase of the acceleration time; (2) with the increase of the compression ratio of the shock from 2 to 4, the spectral index decreases from 3.2 to 2.2 at a given time and in the same energy range; (3) when the finite upstream and downstream escape boundaries decrease from 5 to 2, the spectral index of the particle energy spectrum increases from 2.4 to 3.3, and the acceleration efficiency of particles decreases; (4) the spectral index decreases from 2.4 to 0.9 with the increase of the initial inject energy of the particles; (5) when the diffusive coefficient is directly proportional to the energy of the particles, the spectral index increases from 2.2 to 4.3 as compared with the case of constant diffusive coefficient.     

Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron Waves in Multi-Ions Hot Anisotropic Plasma in Auroral Acceleration Region-Particle Aspect Approach

Using particle aspect approach, the effect of multi-ions densities on the dispersion relation, growth rate, perpendicular resonant energy and growth length of electromagnetic ion cyclotron wave with general loss-cone distribution function in hot anisotropic multi-ion plasma is presented for auroral acceleration region. It is observed that higher He⁺ and O⁺ ions densities enhance the wave frequency closer to the H⁺ ion cyclotron frequency and growth rate of the wave. The differential heating of He⁺ ions perpendicular to the magnetic field is enhanced at higher densities of He⁺ ions. The waves require longer distances to achieve observable amplitude by wave-particle interactions mechanism as predicted by growth length. It is also found that electron thermal anisotropy of the background plasma enhances the growth rate and reduces the growth length of multi-ions plasma. These results are determined for auroral acceleration region.     

平行激波加速离子的数值研究

伴随耀斑和日冕物质抛射共生的日冕和行星际快激波作为一种粒子加速机制一直是理论研究关注的热点课题.在准平行激波传播条件下,首先建立数值求解一维输运方程的方法,然后探讨加速离子分布与激波和背景等离子参数之间的关系.取扩散系数分别为常数和能量的函数、有限自由逃逸边界的计算结果表明:(1)随着加速时间的增大,高能粒子近似呈双幂律分布,低能端(3～10 MeV)谱指数逐渐从10.2减小到2.4,能谱逐渐变硬,粒子被激波加速后能量逐渐增大;(2)随着激波压缩比从2增大到4,相同时间同一能量范围的粒子能谱谱指数逐渐从3.2减小到2.2,能谱逐渐变硬,表明激波强度的增大使得加速效率增大;(3)上下游逃逸边界由5减小到2后,粒子能谱的谱指数由2.4增大到3.3,粒子的加速效率减小;(4)当粒子注入能量增大时,粒子能谱的谱指数由2.4减小到0.9,加速效率增大;(5)当扩散系数与能量成正比时,粒子能谱指数由2.2增大到4.3,能谱变软.     

Characteristics of Enhanced and Low Amplitude Anisotropic Wave Trains and Interplanetary Transients

The occurrence of a large number of high and low amplitude anisotropic wave train events over the years 1981–1994 has been examined along with the different solar features. The results indicate that the time of maximum of diurnal variation significantly remains in the 18-h direction for majority of the high and low amplitude wave trains. The amplitude of diurnal anisotropy remains significantly high and phase shifts towards earlier hours as compared to the quite day annual average values for majority of the HAEs. The diurnal amplitude remains significantly low and phase shifts towards earlier hours as compared to the quiet day annual average values for majority of the LAEs. The occurrence of these enhanced/low amplitude events is found to be dominant during the positive polarity of the Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field. The amplitude of the diurnal anisotropy of these events is found to increase on the days of magnetic cloud as compared to the days prior to the event and it found to decrease during the later period of the event as the cloud passes the Earth. The high-speed solar wind streams do not play any significant role in causing these types of events. The interplanetary disturbances (magnetic clouds) are also effective in producing cosmic ray decreases.     

Solar Wind and Heavy Ion Properties of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections

Magnetic field and plasma properties of the solar wind measured in near-Earth space are a convolution of coronal source conditions and in-transit processes which take place between the corona and near-Earth space. Elemental composition and heavy ion charge states, however, are not significantly altered during transit to Earth and thus such properties can be used to diagnose the coronal source conditions of the solar wind observed in situ. We use data from the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft to statistically quantify differences in the coronal source properties of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). Magnetic clouds, ICMEs which contain a magnetic flux-rope signature, display heavy ion properties consistent with significantly hotter coronal source regions than non-cloud ICMEs. Specifically, magnetic clouds display significantly elevated ion charge states, suggesting they receive greater heating in the low corona. Further dividing ICMEs by speed, however, shows this effect is primarily limited to fast magnetic clouds and that in terms of heavy ion properties, slow magnetic clouds are far more similar to non-cloud ICMEs. As such, fast magnetic clouds appear distinct from other ICME types in terms of both ion charge states and elemental composition. ICME speed, rather ICME type, correlates with helium abundance and iron charge state, consistent with fast ICMEs being heated through the more extended corona. Fast ICMEs also tend to be embedded within faster ambient solar wind than slow ICMEs, though this could be partly the result of in-transit drag effects. These signatures are discussed in terms of spatial sampling of ICMEs and from fundamentally different coronal formation and release processes.     

Ion Acceleration at the Front of Nonlinear Whistlers

Astronomy Letters - We have solved the problem of the acceleration of ions (protons) incident on the front of a nonlinear whistler for which the structure of its electromagnetic fields is assumed...     

Effect of Interplanetary Turbulences Causing High/low Amplitude Anisotropic Wave Trains in Cr Intensity

The high/low-amplitude anisotropic wave train events (HAE/LAE) in CR intensity have been investigated during the period 1981–1990, using the neutron monitoring data for different latitudes. In all, 21 HAE and 15 LAE cases have been studied. It has been observed that the phase of the diurnal anisotropy remains in the same co-rotational direction for the majority of the HAE/LAE cases. However, it has also been observed that the phase of the diurnal anisotropy changes to later hours in some of the HAE cases, whereas it changes to early hours in some of the LAE cases. Further, the amplitude of the semi-diurnal anisotropy for HAE/LAE cases remains statistically the same; however, the phase of the semi-diurnal anisotropy for HAE has been found to shift to later hours for all events. Furthermore, the HAE occur dominantly during the declining phase of solar activity, whereas LAE occur dominantly during the minimum solar activity period. The geomagnetic activity index-A_p has been observed to remain low during the period of each HAE/LAE. The possible phenomenon to cause the enhanced/low-amplitude daily variation has been proposed to appear on the back side of the Sun.     

Effective Acceleration Model for the Arrival Time of Interplanetary Shocks driven by Coronal Mass Ejections

In a previous work (Paouris and Mavromichalaki in Solar Phys. 292, 30, 2017), we presented a total of 266 interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) with as much information as possible. We developed a new empirical model for estimating the acceleration of these events in the interplanetary medium from this analysis. In this work, we present a new approach on the effective acceleration model (EAM) for predicting the arrival time of the shock that preceds a CME, using data of a total of 214 ICMEs. For the first time, the projection effects of the linear speed of CMEs are taken into account in this empirical model, which significantly improves the prediction of the arrival time of the shock. In particular, the mean value of the time difference between the observed time of the shock and the predicted time was equal to +3.03 hours with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 18.58 hours and a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 22.47 hours. After the improvement of this model, the mean value of the time difference is decreased to ?0.28 hours with an MAE of 17.65 hours and an RMSE of 21.55 hours. This improved version was applied to a set of three recent Earth-directed CMEs reported in May, June, and July of 2017, and we compare our results with the values predicted by other related models.     

Adiabatic Deceleration Effects on the Formation of Heavy Ion Charge Spectra in Interplanetary Space

We investigate the effects of interplanetary propagation on the energy dependence of the mean ionic charge of ~0.1–1 MeV/n iron observed during impulsive solar particle events at 1 AU. A Monte-Carlo approach is applied to solve the transport equation which takes into account spatial diffusion as well as convection and adiabatic deceleration. We find that interplanetary propagation results in a shift of charge spectra observed at 1 AU towards lower energies due to adiabatic deceleration. Taking the above effect into account, we compare predictions of our model of charge-consistent stochastic acceleration with recent ACE observations. A detailed analysis of two particle events shows that our model can give a consistent explanation of the observed iron charge and energy spectra, and allows one to put constraints on the temperature, density, and the acceleration and escape time scales in the acceleration region.     

Experimental Radar Studies of Anisotropic Diffusion of High Altitude Meteor Trails

At altitudes above 93 km in the atmosphere, magnetic and electric fields can affect the modes and rates of non-turbulent diffusion of ionized meteor trails. Anisotropic diffusion is expected. Most theories of anisotropic diffusion, and indeed most experimental studies, have concentrated on the effects of the magnetic field in producing this anisotropy, and different rates of expansion are expected in directions parallel to and perpendicular to the magnetic field lines. In this study, we use interferometric meteor radars to investigate the dependence of the ambipolar diffusion coefficient on viewing direction relative to the magnetic field, and show that the dependence is at best weak when daily averages are used. We then demonstrate that the reason for this effect is that the positions of maximum and minimum diffusion rates varies as a function of time of day, and that daily averaging masks the anisotropy. One possibility to account for the observations is that this strong diurnal variation is a consequence of the electric fields in the upper atmosphere, which are often tidally driven. An alternative possibility is a diurnal cycle in mean meteor entrance speeds. We lean towards the first hypothesis, but both possibilities are discussed. We demonstrate our results with data from several sites, but particularly using the Clovar radar near London, Ontario, Canada.     

A Study on the Technique of Observing Interplanetary Scintillation with Simultaneous Dual-Frequency Measurements

Ground-based observation of Interplanetary Scintillation(IPS)is an important ap- proach of monitoring solar wind speed.We describe both the principle and method of ob- serving the solar wind speed by using the normalized cross-spectrum of simultaneous dual- frequency IPS measurement.The effects of the solar wind properties and the angular size of the scintillation source on the measurement of solar wind speed are investigated by numerical analysis.We carry out a comparison of this method with the traditional single station-single frequency method.We outline a new IPS observation system using this method now under construction at the National Astronomical Observatories,CAS(NAOC).     

对一个太阳风暴及其行星际和地磁效应的研究

对一个爆发于2014年1月7日的太阳风暴进行了研究,通过对太阳活动的多波段遥感观测—来自于太阳动力学天文台(Solar Dynamics Observatory,SDO)以及太阳和日球天文台(Solar and Heliospheric Observatory,SOHO),分析了耀斑和日冕物质抛射(coronal mass ejection,CME)的爆发过程.通过地球同步轨道环境业务卫星(Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites,GOES)对高能质子以及日地L1点的元素高级成分探测器(Advanced Composition Explorer,ACE)对当地等离子体环境的就位观测,分析了伴随太阳风暴的太阳高能粒子(solar energetic particle,SEP)事件和行星际CME(ICME)及其驱动的激波.通过地面磁场数据分析了该太阳风暴对地磁场的影响.研究结果表明:(1)耀斑脉冲相的开始时刻和CME在日面上的抛射在时序上一致.(2)高能质子主要源于CME驱动的激波加速,并非源于耀斑磁重联过程.质子的释放发生在CME传播到7.7个太阳半径的高度的时刻.(3)穿过近地空间的行星际激波鞘层的厚度和ICME本身的厚度分别为0.22 au和0.26 au.(4)行星际激波和ICME引起了多次地磁亚暴和极光,但没有产生明显的地磁暴.原因在于ICME没有包含一个规则的磁云结构或明显的南向磁场分量.     

A New Prediction Method for the Arrival Time of Interplanetary Shocks

Solar transient activities such as solar flares, disappearing filaments, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are solar manifestations of interplanetary (IP) disturbances. Forecasting the arrival time at the near Earth space of the associated interplanetary shocks following these solar disturbances is an important aspect in space weather forecasting because the shock arrival usually marks the geomagnetic storm sudden commencement (SSC) when the IMF Bz component is appropriately southward and/or the solar wind dynamic pressure behind the shock is sufficiently large. Combining the analytical study for the propagation of the blast wave from a point source in a moving, steady-state, medium with variable density (wei, 1982; wei and dryer 1991) with the energy estimation method in the ISPM model (smith and dryer 1990, 1995), we present a new shock propagation model (called SPM below) for predicting the arrival time of interplanetary shocks at Earth. The duration of the X-ray flare, the initial shock speed and the total energy of the transient event are used for predicting the arrival of the associated shocks in our model. Especially, the background speed, i.e., the convection effect of the solar wind is considered in this model. Applying this model to 165 solar events during the periods of January 1979 to October 1989 and February 1997 to August 2002, we found that our model could be practically equivalent to the prevalent models of STOA, ISPM and HAFv.2 in forecasting the shock arrival time. The absolute error in the transit time in our model is not larger than those of the other three models for the same sample events. Also, the prediction test shows that the relative error of our model is ≤10% for 27.88% of all events, ≤30% for 71.52%, and ≤50% for 85.46%, which is comparable to the relative errors of the other models. These results might demonstrate a potential capability of our model in terms of real-time forecasting.     

The Solar Connection of Enhanced Heavy Ion Charge States in the Interplanetary Medium: Implications for the Flux-Rope Structure of CMEs

We investigated a set of 54 interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) events whose solar sources are very close to the disk center (within ±?15^° from the central meridian). The ICMEs consisted of 23 magnetic-cloud (MC) events and 31 non-MC events. Our analyses suggest that the MC and non-MC ICMEs have more or less the same eruption characteristics at the Sun in terms of soft X-ray flares and CMEs. Both types have significant enhancements in ion charge states, although the non-MC structures have slightly lower levels of enhancement. The overall duration of charge-state enhancement is also considerably smaller than that in MCs as derived from solar wind plasma and magnetic signatures. We find very good correlation between the Fe and O charge-state measurements and the flare properties such as soft X-ray flare intensity and flare temperature for both MCs and non-MCs. These observations suggest that both MC and non-MC ICMEs are likely to have a flux-rope structure and the unfavorable observational geometry may be responsible for the appearance of non-MC structures at 1 AU. We do not find any evidence for an active region expansion resulting in ICMEs lacking a flux-rope structure because the mechanism of producing high charge states and the flux-rope structure at the Sun is the same for MC and non-MC events.     

A Study of the Frequency of Occurrence of Large-Fluence Solar Proton Events and the Strength of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field

It has been shown previously that the number of very-large-fluence solar proton events inferred for the period since 1561 were more frequent at times of low solar activity (e.g., following the recovery from the Maunder minimum), than in the present epoch of high solar activity. An inverse dependence is demonstrated between the probability of observation of the very large-fluence solar proton events and the strength of the interplanetary magnetic field derived from empirical predictions. Using the observed dependence, it is predicted and demonstrated that large-fluence solar proton events have been observed at Earth more frequently near the recurrent minima of the solar activity cycle in the past than during the present epoch. We show that these results are explicable in terms of the linear dependence of the Alfvén velocity upon the strength of the interplanetary magnetic field, leading to higher shock compression ratios in the past. These results indicate that this aspect of “solar weather” will be significantly influenced by the prevailing strength of the interplanetary magnetic field, and that recurrence of solar conditions similar to those of the solar activity minimum of solar cycles 12–14 (1878.9–1913.6) would be accompanied by a factor of ∼4 increase in the occurrence of large-fluence solar proton events.     

The Solar Ionization Rate of the Interplanetary Hydrogen as a Function of a Heliomagnetic Latitude: A New Model for the Interplanetary Lyman Alpha Studies

In this work we have modelled the solar wind proton flux which varies as a function of distance to the heliomagnetic equator and its effects on the interplanetary Lyman α radiation. The results imply that a groove observed in Lyman α intensity patterns toward the upwind direction Bertaux et al. disappears when the tilt angle of the heliomagnetic equator is larger than 20^°.The observations by Bertaux et al. were measured during the solar wind minimum when the tilt angle of the streamer belt is low. During the solar wind maximum when the tilt angle of the streamer belt is large the Lyman α groove should disappear according to our results. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A Study of Correlation between Solar Wind Data Observed at Two Points in Interplanetary Space During the Recent Solar Maximum

Identifying co-rotating structures in solar wind enables us to predict solar wind variation at the Earth and, hence, geomagnetic disturbances. However, co-rotating structures during solar maximum are sometimes difficult to see. We correlated solar wind data obtained by two spacecraft, Nozomi heading towards Mars and ACE at the L1 point, from late 1999 through early 2002. There were intervals when the solar wind showed specific co-rotating structures even in the midst of the solar maximum, whereas no correlation was found during the other intervals. The coefficient was generally higher between Nozomi and ACE than for the 27-day recurrence at ACE, while there was some correlation, especially when the difference in longitude between the two spacecraft was less than 120°. Although frequency of occurrence of CMEs is partly responsible for the correlation, the results can be interpreted in terms of rapid changes in co-rotating high-speed streams from near-equatorial coronal holes at the solar maximum.     

Cooperation with the SCOSTEP Project: Study of Travelling Interplanetary Phenomena (STIP)

The Flare Build-up Study (FBS) is primarily devoted to the study of various physical processes on the Sun prior to the occurrence of a solar flare. The relationship of these processes to the flare itself is then to be compared to similar, albeit smaller, processes in the magnetosopheric tail sometimes called the auroral flare. The Study of Travelling Interplanetary Phenomena (STIP) is devoted to specific studies of various phenomena from their inception on the Sun to their passage through the interplanetary medium. Some of these studies will be prior to and during both solar flare and magnetospheric substorm phenomena. Various scientific areas where the work of FBS and STIP would be mutually beneficial are discussed.