Tracking CMEs from the Sun to the Heliosphere with Electrons and Waves

Details Tracking CMEs from the Sun to the Heliosphere with Electrons and Waves Tracking CMEs from the Sun to the Heliosphere with Electrons and Waves

May 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sh61a09l&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SH61A-09

Physics

2111 Ejecta, Driver Gases, And Magnetic Clouds, 2114 Energetic Particles, Heliospheric (7514), 2134 Interplanetary Magnetic Fields

Scientific paper

Energetic electrons are ideal as probes of Interplanetary (I)CME magnetic fields from the corona to the distant heliosphere. They have small gyroradii, they are not gravitationally bound to the Sun, and they can escape the corona without substantial scattering or energy loss. Furthermore, the Sun's hot corona provides a continuous electron outflow while acceleration in coronal flares provides an impulsive electron source. By analyzing the velocity dispersion of the electrons observed in situ by interplanetary spacecraft, both the length of the field line and the time of injection can be inferred. The impulsively accelerated electrons produce type III solar radio emission which can be tracked from the heliosphere back to the Sun, where the coronal flare can often be located through its X-ray emission. Such analyses have shown that the 10/18/95 magnetic cloud/CME was highly twisted and that it was magnetically connected to an active region. The continuous electron outflow results in the outward streaming solar wind electron halo and strahl. Bi-directional electron streaming has been used as an indicator of a closed magnetic field topology and thus a signature of ICMES. In some ICMEs there are abrupt transitions from bi-directional to unidirectional to dropouts of the halo electrons, suggesting magnetic reconnection going on at the ICME footpoints. Quantitative measurements of bi-directional streaming can shed new light on these interpretations. Small scale Alfvenic fluctuations typically propagate along field lines away from the Sun. These waves are thought to be remnants of plasma processes occuring in the solar corona. We show that within some ICMEs these waves are propagating in both directions along the field.

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