Double layer formation due to current injection

It is shown by numerical simulations that enhanced current density can generate double layers, even when the electron drift speed is significantly below the electron thermal speed. The double layer potential is spontaneously produced by the space charge self-consistently developed inside the simulation domain. The particle influxes from the low-potential boundary of our simulation domain are independent of the outfluxes. The potential difference φ₀ is shown increase with increasing number density of the injection current. Strong double layers with potential energy eφ₀ ? kT₀ (the electron thermal energy) are stably formed when the injection electron current much exceeds the thermal current of ambient electrons. The backscattered and mirrored electrons are found to have stabilizing effects on the current-driven double layers.     

On the production of hard X-rays in solar flares

The problem of producing the hard X-ray burst at the onset of solar flares may be thought of in terms of the problem of producing the non-thermal electrons which emit the X-rays via bremsstrahlung. Electron acceleration to relativistic energies without similar ion acceleration is difficult to achieve, even in an ad hoc theoretical model. Yet from global energetic considerations, it is not feasible to accelerate the electrons as a minor constituent of the total energetic particle population. Therefore, it is necessary to invoke a more sophisticated process for the electron acceleration. In this paper we describe a mechanism for achieving this via an initial acceleration of a neutralized ion beam. When such a beam impacts the chromosphere, the electrons start to scatter while the ions continue downwards, rapidly setting up an electric field which is either cancelled by the inflow of background chromospheric electrons or results in the runaway acceleration of beam electrons. In the former case the result is simply heating, whereas in the latter case much of the ion kinetic energy is transferred into electron kinetic energy. The final electron energy may be similar to the typical energy of the ions. The electrons that are accelerated are those in the neutral beam that experience an electric field greater than the critical Dreicer field. Thus there will be a low-energy cut-off to the electron spectrum which overcomes the well-known energetics problem at low energies with certain other spectral forms.     

Nonthermal electrons in the thick-target reverse-current model for hard X-ray bremsstrahlung

The behaviour of the accelerated electrons escaping from a high-temperature source of primary energy in a solar flare is investigated. The direct current of fast electrons is supposed to be balanced by the reverse current of thermal electrons in the ambient colder plasma inside flare loops. The self-consistent kinetic problem is formulated; and the reverse-current electric field and the fast electron distribution function are found from its solution. The X-ray bremsstrahlung polarization is then calculated from the distribution function. The difference of results from those in the case of thermal runaway electrons (Diakonov and Somov, 1988) is discussed. The solutions with and without account of the affect of a reverse-current electric field are also compared.     

Effect of low energy electron injection on storm-time evolution of radiation belt energetic electrons: three-dimensional modeling

Using the STEERB (storm-time evolution of electron radiation belt) code, we simulate the evolution of radiation belt energetic electrons during geomagnetic storms in the case of low energy electron injection. The STEERB code is used to solve the three-dimensional Fokker–Planck diffusion equation which incorporates wave-particle interaction, Coulomb collisions and radial diffusion. Numerical simulations show that under the short time (～1 h) injection of low energy (0.1 MeV≤E _k ≤0.2 MeV) fluxes of radiation belt energetic electrons can increase during the entire storm period. During the main and recovery phases, such injection efficiently enhances chorus-driven acceleration of radiation belt energetic electrons, allowing fluxes of energetic electrons by a factor of 1–2 orders higher than those in the absence of injection. The current results indicate that substorm-induced electron injection must be incorporated to investigate the evolution of radiation belt energetic electrons.     

Polar 5—an electron accelerator experiment within an aurora. 4. Measurements of the 391.4 nm light produced by an artificial electron beam in the upper atmosphere

The POLAR 5 sounding rocket, launched from Andøya, Norway, on February 1, 1976, was of the “mother-daughter” configuration.A rocket-borne electron accelerator, mounted on the “daughter,” produced a pulsed electron beam with a maximum current of 130 mA and electron energies up to 10 kev.Using a photometer the luminescence at 391.4nm produced by electrons colliding with ambient nitrogen molecules was studied. The observed light at 391.4 nm consisted of low background, with occasional flashes due to the natural auroral excitations, and intense sparkles when the electron beam was emitted.Below 130 km the light observed during beam injection can be explained by excitations of ambient N₂ due to high energy beam electrons.In the altitude range from 150 km to apogee at 220 km, the observed light level during beam emission is fairly constant and much larger than that produced by the high energy beam electrons. A possible source of this light is the excitation of ambient N₂ by an enhanced population of low energy electrons, created by the presence of a beam plasma discharge in the vicinity of the “daughter” payload.     

Collective plasma effects and the electron number problem in solar hard X-ray bursts

Due to the relatively high stream densities involved, collective interactions with the ambient plasma are likely to be important for the electrons producing solar hard X-ray bursts. In thick- and thin-target bremsstrahlung models the most relevant process is limitation of the invoked electron beams by ion sound wave generation in the neutralizing reverse current established in the atmosphere. For the thick target model it is shown that typical electron fluxes are near the maximum permitted by stability of the reverse current so that ion-sound wave generation may be the process which limits the electron injection rate. On the other hand the chromospheric reverse current is sufficient to supply the large total number of electrons which have to be accelerated in the corona. For the thin target the low density of the corona severely limits the possible reverse current so that the maximum upward flux of fast electrons is probably much too small to explain X-ray bursts but compatible with observations of interplanetary electrons.A distinct class of model postulates a small number of electrons confined by resonant scattering in a dense coronal slab surrounding a current sheet with continuous stochastic acceleration offsetting collisional losses. The energetic aspects of such a situation described by Hoyng (1975) are developed here by addition of equations describing the slab geometry in terms of electron diffusion by whistler scattering and of the collisional damping of the accelerating Langmuir waves. Solution of these equations results in values for the fieldB(70–350 G), densityn ₀(2–5 × 10¹² cm ^–3), slab dimensions (10¹⁸ km² × 0.3–3 km) and relative Langmuir energy density (10^–3 – 10^–2) required to produce the observed range of bursts. It is pointed out, however, that there may be no real gain in electron number requirements since the fast electrons in the emitting slab would be constantly swept out along with the frozen-in plasma as dissipation proceeds so that a large total number of electrons is still required. It could in fact be that just such a coronal region is the injection mechanism for the thick-target model.On leave from Department of Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Scotland.     

Current interruption in a collisionless plasma by non-linear electrostatic waves

The existence of current-interrupting non-linear electrostatic waves in the form of negative solitons is demonstrated. Self-consistent, non-linear electrostatic potentials are constructed assuming that a current may be interrupted by trapping current-carrying electrons in such a potential. A significant fraction of the current-carrying electrons is trapped by the potential if the electron thermal velocity is much less than the electron streaming velocity. In one class of solutions, the negative solitons, the current may be reduced to a fourth of its initial value in the limit of high ion-electron temperature ratio.     

The penetration of soft electrons into the ionosphere

Calculations are presented of energy spectra and angular and spatial distributions of electron fluxes in the ionosphere resulting from precipitation ofmonoenergetic (E = 25, 50 and 100 eV) electrons. The incident electrons are assumed to be isotropic over the downward direction. It is found that the resulting steady-state electron fluxes above ca. 300 km are highly anisotropic, and that the pitch angle distribution is energy dependent. About 15 per cent of the incident electrons are backscattered elastically to the protonosphere. A much larger number of electrons escape after they have deposited a part of their energy in the atmosphere. The mean energy of the escaping electrons is about half that of the incident electrons. About 50% of the incident energy is absorbed in the atmosphere, the remainder being returned to the protonosphere. The rate of absorption of energy is a maximum at heights between 300 and 400 km. Most of the energy is absorbed in ionization and excitation of atomic oxygen. An appreciable amount of energy is, however, absorbed as heat by the ambient electron gas. Altitude profiles are presented of the rates of ionization, excitation, and electron heating caused by soft electron precipitation.     

同步辐射瑞利-金斯波场对高能电子加速

由分析可知，在光学厚的介质中麦氏分布的极端相对论电子在磁场中能产生同步加速辐射，其辐射谱为瑞利—金斯谱．基于Fokker-Planck方程，这种波场对快电子的加速将产生幂律分布的电子能谱．考虑到日冕活动区的物理条件，在太阳耀斑中观测到的10Mev左右的电子能谱很可能就是由同步加速辐射加速快电子产生的．     

On the role of reverse current on the hard X-ray production in solar flares and time-lags between high- and low-energy photons

The evolution of energy and angular distributions of electrons has been studied accounting for the reverse current effect by combining analytically treated small angle multiple scatterings with large angle Monte-Carlo calculations. Reverse current and potential variations as function of column density have been computed. It is found that the reverse current decreases steeply with increase in electron energy. However, it becomes significant for low-energy electrons. By use of these distributions and bremsstrahlung crosssection, the X-ray energy spectrum has been calculated. The nature of the resulting X-ray spectrum integrated over all column depths is similar to the one without reverse current. The time-lag between high-and low-energy photon production has been calculated. It is found that there is a small difference between time-lags as function of observation angles. This fact can be used to test the validity of the beamed thick target model.     

Distortions of the energy distribution of ionospheric thermal electrons near the focus of Sq current vortex

Energy distributions of the thermal electrons in the ionospheric plasma were measured on 16 January 1974 and 16 September 1976 by two Japanese rockets, K-9M-45 and K-9M-55 respectively near the focus of S_q current vortex. The main effort was to investigate the energy state of the thermal electrons in a localized hot electron layer which occurs at a height of around 105 km in winter.The results obtained on 16 January 1974 showed that the thermal electrons in the hot electron layer had not a pure Maxwell distribution. While on 16 September 1976, the energy distribution of the electrons was found to be almost Maxwellian in the dynamo region as well as the F-region.     

Field-aligned currents above an auroral arc

Simultaneous observations of precipitating electrons and protons in the energy range from 15 eV to 35 keV and magnetic field variations were made onboard a sounding rocket payload launched from the Andoya Rocket Range. The electric current density deduced from the electron precipitation observed during the passage over an auroral arc was comparable to that determined from the magnetic field variations. In addition, a downward current was observed by its magnetic field signature at the northern edge of the arc which was, however, not accompanied by significant particle fluxes in the energy range under consideration. It will be assumed that this current was carried by thermal electrons of ionospheric origin.     

Comparisons of solar flare X-ray producing and escaping electrons from ∼ 2 TO 100 keV

Using observations from the ISEE-3 spacecraft, we compare the X-ray producing electrons and escaping electrons from a solar flare on 8 November, 1978. The instantaneous 5 to 75 keV electron spectrum in the X-ray producing region is computed from the observed bremsstrahlung X-ray spectrum. Assuming that energy loss by Coulomb collisions (thick target) is the dominant electron loss process, the accelerated electron spectrum is obtained. The energy spectrum of the escaping electrons observed from 2 to 100 keV differs significantly from the spectra of the X-ray producing electrons and of the accelerated electrons, even when the energy loss which the escaping electrons experienced during their travel from the Sun to the Earth is taken into account. The observations are consistent with a model where the escaping electrons come from an extended X-ray producing region which ranges from the chromosphere to high in the corona. In this model the low energy escaping electrons (2–10 keV) come from the higher part of the extended X-ray source where the overlying column density is low, while the high energy electrons (20–100 keV) come from the entire X-ray source.     

The relationship of electron plasma oscillations to type III radio emissions and low-energy solar electrons

An extensive study of the IMP-6 and IMP-8 plasma and radio wave data has been performed to try to find electron plasma oscillations associated with type III radio noise bursts and low energy solar electrons. This study shows that electron plasma oscillations are seldom observed in association with solar electron events and type III radio bursts at 1.0 AU. In nearly four years of observations only one event was found in which electron plasma oscillations are clearly associated with solar electrons. Numerous cases were found in which no electron plasma oscillations with field strengths greater than 1 V/m could be detected even though electrons from the solar flare were clearly detected at the spacecraft.For the one case in which electron plasma oscillations are definitely produced by the electrons ejected by the solar flare, the electric field strength is very small, only about 100 V/m. This field strength is about a factor of ten smaller than the amplitude of electron plasma oscillations generated by electrons streaming into the solar wind from the bow shock. Electromagnetic radiation, believed to be similar to the type III radio emission, is also observed coming from the region of more intense electron plasma oscillations upstream of the bow shock. Quantitative calculations of the rate of conversion of the plasma oscillation energy to electromagnetic radiation are presented for plasma oscillations excited by both solar electrons and electrons from the bow shock. These calculations show that neither the type III radio emissions nor the radiation from upstream of the bow shock can be adequately explained by a current theory for the coupling of electron plasma oscillations to electromagnetic radiation. Possible ways of resolving these difficulties are discussed.     

Acceleration of Electrons and Protons in Reconnecting Current Sheets Including Single or Multiple X-points

Kinematic characteristics of electrons and protons in the magnetic reconnecting current sheet in the presence of a guide field are investigated. Particle trajectories are calculated for different values of the guide field by a test-particle calculation. The relationship between the final energy and the initial position has also been studied. We found that the addition of a guide field not only allows particles to get more energy and not only results in the separation of electrons and protons, but also causes the reconnecting electric field to selectively accelerate electrons and protons for different initial positions. The energy spectrum eventually obtained is the common power-law spectrum, and as the guide field increases, the index for the spectrum of electrons decreases rapidly. However, for a weak background magnetic field, proton spectra are not very sensitive to the guide field; but for a strong background field, the dependence of the spectrum index is similar to the electron spectrum. Meanwhile, kinematic characteristics of the accelerated particles in the current sheet including multiple X-points and O-points were also investigated. The result indicates that the existence of the multiple X- and O-points helps particles trapped in the accelerating region to gain more energy, and yields the double or multiple power-law feature.     

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.     

Rocket observations of the interaction of auroral electrons with the atmosphere

Electron spectra obtained during the flight of Black Brant VB-31 on August 17, 1970 through a stable aurora to a height of 268 km have been analyzed in detail to obtain the pitch angle distributions from 25 to 155° and the electron energy distributions over an energy range of 18 keV to 20 eV through the region of atmospheric interaction down to 97 km. Backscatter ratios for 140° pitch angle range from 0.065 for 18 keV electrons to 0.22 for 1 keV electrons. Backscatter of lower energy electrons decreases with atmospheric depth below 200 km. The effect of the interactions between auroral electrons and the atmosphere is such as to give a peak in electron flux which moves progressively to higher energies with penetration depth. The secondary electron flux increases monotonically with height up to 200 km. The secondary electron spectrum can be approximated by an energy power over small energy ranges but its form is somewhat dependent on height and on the primary electron spectrum.     

First phase acceleration mechanisms and implications for hard X-ray burst models in solar flares

Requirements for the number of nonthermal electrons which must be accelerated in the impulsive phase of a flare are reviewed. These are uncertain by two orders of magnitude depending on whether hard X-rays above 25 keV are produced primarily by hot thermal electrons which contain a small fraction of the flare energy or by nonthermal streaming electrons which contain > 50% of the flare energy. Possible acceleration mechanisms are considered to see to what extent either X-ray production scenario can be considered viable. Direct electric field acceleration is shown to involve significant heating. In addition, candidate primary energy release mechanisms to convert stored magnetic energy into flare energy, steady reconnection and the tearing mode instability, transfer at least half of the stored energy into heat and most of the remaining energy to ions. Acceleration by electron plasma waves requires that the waves be driven to large amplitude by electrons with large streaming velocities or by anisotropic ion-acoustic waves which also require streaming electrons for their production. These in turn can only come from direct electric field acceleration since it is shown that ion-acoustic waves excited by the primary current cannot amplify electron plasma waves. Thus, wave acceleration is subject to the same limitations as direct electric field acceleration. It is concluded that at most 0.1% of the flare energy can be deposited into nonthermal streaming electrons with the energy conversion mechanisms as they have been proposed and known acceleration mechanisms. Thus, hard X-ray production above 10 keV primarily by hot thermal electrons is the only choice compatible with models for the primary energy release as they presently exist.     

Some ideas concerning the problem of anomalous polar E region heating due to Farley-Buneman turbulence

The energetics of the excitation of the Farley-Buneman instability is considered, which is recently observed in the auroral and equatorial E regions of the Earth's ionosphere at altitudes between 100 km and 120 km. In the magnetic field of the Earth the Farley-Buneman instability is excited under the condition of a strong enough external electric field in the case of ion-neutral collisions with frequencies much larger than the ion gyrofrequency and electron-neutral collisions with frequencies much below the electron gyrofrequency. It is shown that the linear increase of the wave amplitudes is caused by a small disbalance between the processes of nonlinear energy pumping into the wave from an external electric field and the energy loss because of the collisions of the electrons and ions with the neutral particles. During the nonlinear energy pumping energy of the external electric field is transferred into a nonlinear current of second order, which is connected with the oscillating motion of the electrons in the wave. The oscillating electron motion takes place perpendicular to wave propagation. From the estimations follows that the energy pumped into a Farley-Buneman wave during one period of pulsation is much larger than the wave energy itself. A new and simply to understand derivation of the anomalous diffusion coefficient is presented, related to the study of the behaviour of a test wave with frequency much above the frequencies of the Farley-Buneman turbulence in developed stage can cause an additional macroscopic nonlinear Pedersen current directed along the external electric field. It is found that the nonlinear Pedersen current can reach the order of the usual Pedersen current and should contribute to the effective heating of the ionospheric plasma.     

The role of photoemission in the coupling of the Mercury surface and magnetosphere

Photoelectrons are emitted from the surface of Mercury and take part in charge exchanges with the magnetosphere. We investigate the role of photoemission in closing field-aligned currents and in balancing the flow of magnetospheric electrons which precipitate to the surface. The conductance of the photoelectron sheath and sub-surface rock material are estimated and compared with that of the exosphere. It is shown that the loss cone angle is always larger than 30–40° on the dayside, and that significant electron precipitation takes place. It is concluded that the closure of field-aligned current is unlikely because the conductance of the surface environment is too low, but that photoemission may alter the isotropy of the magnetospheric electron energy distribution and induce plasma instabilities.