Acceleration of protons trapped upstream of interplanetary shocks

Details Acceleration of protons trapped upstream of interplanetary shocks Acceleration of protons trapped upstream of interplanetary shocks

Aug 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993jgr....9813253e&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 98, no. A8, p. 13,253-13,260.

Physics

2

Interplanetary Medium, Particle Acceleration, Protons, Shock Wave Interaction, Shock Wave Propagation, Adiabatic Conditions, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Magnetic Field Configurations, Magnetic Moments

Scientific paper

Scatter-free acceleration of energetic protons by quasi-perpendicular interplanetary shocks is investigated. Pitch angle distributions of 35-384 keV protom have been determined upstream of four interplanetary shocks that passed through the ISEE-3 spacecraft during 1978-1979. Bidirectional loss-cone-type angular distribution of particles observed at events with the closest to perpendicular field line to shock normal angle suggests that the magnetic field line may have crossed the shock front several times, forming traps on the upstream side. The model was tested by numerical trajectory calculations, resulting in a qualitatively similar angular distribution to those observed. The loss cones imply that the first adiabatic invariant is at least approximately conserved during the shock interaction process. The violation of magnetic moment conservation was investigated in more detail by simulating the trajectories of particles in various trap geometries. It was found that the invariance is fairly well satisfied when the magnetic field line grazes the shock surface. The conservation of the second (longitudinal) adiabatic invariant wes also studied numerically. A possible role which the longitudinal adiabatic invariant may play in the control of the particle release from the trap is pointed out.

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