Singly-ionized helium of solar origin in the solar wind

Details Singly-ionized helium of solar origin in the solar wind Singly-ionized helium of solar origin in the solar wind

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsh34a..06s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SH34A-06

Physics

Plasma Physics

[7509] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Corona, [7823] Space Plasma Physics / Ionization Processes, [7859] Space Plasma Physics / Transport Processes, [7894] Space Plasma Physics / Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

Helium becomes fully ionized in the corona with great efficiency. In the solar wind, deviations from the fully-ionized state by more than one part per million are exceptionally rare, and indicate either exceptionally cold coronal conditions or a rapid expansion process. We report on the detection and characterization of singly-ionized helium (He+) of solar origin as observed by the Solar Wind Experiment (SWE) on board the Wind spacecraft. We identify six events over the course of the mission to date exhibiting thermal ion He+/He++ ratios of up to 1%, four of which are associated with known interplanetary coronal mass ejections. Each of these events occurs in exceptionally cold, dense, and fast plasma conditions at 1 AU. It cannot be determined with any finality, however, whether such conditions correspond uniquely to elevated He+ flux because the thermal He+ peak is not resolvable with SWE under more typical conditions. As in other observations of this rare phenomenon, we find that the freeze-in temperature of the helium charge state is far colder than that of any other minor ion charge state observed by the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) in the same period, perhaps indicating for ejection-related cases that the plasma observed in situ is an admixture that includes some remnant of helium-rich prominence material.

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