Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmsh21b1605k&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #SH21B-1605
Physics
2109 Discontinuities (7811), 2134 Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, 2139 Interplanetary Shocks, 2152 Pickup Ions, 2164 Solar Wind Plasma
Scientific paper
Pickup ions seem to be a perfect tracer of interplanetary discontinuities in the heliosphere and they provide important information on acceleration processes at these structures and in the turbulent solar wind (i.e. suprathermal tails). Studies of pickup ions using AMPTE, Ulysses, SOHO, Wind and ACE demonstrated that pickup ion fluxes and the shape of their distributions can vary substantially on time scales from less than one hour to many days. These variations have been attributed to changes in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) direction and strength in the sense of incomplete pickup and/or density compressions and decompressions. For instance, at CIRs one observes the most intense and most prolonged enhancements of energetic helium pickup ions. At present, the vast majority of the observed temporal variations remain unexplained. Furthermore, spatial variations of pickup ion distributions could not be studied with single spacecraft observation. Simultaneous observations of pickup ion distributions with the PLASTIC instrument on STEREO A and B now provide the opportunity to follow pickup ion variations on spatial scales from a few 106 km to 108 km. In the early mission phase STEREO A and B were often along the same magnetic field flux tubes. This allows us to study temporal effects. With increasing spacecraft separation spatial effects can be studied. In this presentation we will show STEREO observations of helium pickup ion spectra and fluxes for 2007/8 in their dependence on solar wind density, speed and flux as well IMF direction and strength on both spacecraft. We then determined whether the observed variations are mainly correlated features that are associated with spatial structures passing the STEREO spacecraft at different times (such as CIRs or the focusing cone), or whether they have a substantial uncorrelated component indicative of temporal variations.
Barry James
Blush L.
Bochsler Peter
Ellis Liam
Farrugia Charles
No associations
LandOfFree
Temporal and Spatial Variations of Pickup Ions seen on STEREO/PLASTIC does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Temporal and Spatial Variations of Pickup Ions seen on STEREO/PLASTIC, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Temporal and Spatial Variations of Pickup Ions seen on STEREO/PLASTIC will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1246902