Energetic particle anisotropies at the termination shock

Details Energetic particle anisotropies at the termination shock Energetic particle anisotropies at the termination shock

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsh51b..07f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SH51B-07

Physics

2114 Energetic Particles (7514), 2124 Heliopause And Solar Wind Termination, 7845 Particle Acceleration, 7851 Shock Waves (4455), 7859 Transport Processes

Scientific paper

Low-energy termination shock particle populations observed by the Voyagers upstream of the shock exhibit strong field-aligned beaming with anisotropies of the order of unity. The Parker transport equation is valid only for nearly isotropic phase space distributions and is inapplicable to these highly beamed populations. The usual approach is to revert to the more general Skilling transport equation retaining pitch-angle information. We developed a complimentary technique employing a three-moment expansion of the Skilling equation using Legendre polynomials. We investigate the effects of adiabatic focusing and reflection on the diffusive acceleration process at a highly oblique shock wave. It is shown that low-energy particle intensities are discontinuous and sharply peaked at the shock, consistent with the observations. Particle spectra are not only harder than the power laws predicted from Parker transport theory, but also exhibit spectral gaps near the low- energy acceleration threshold due to more efficient acceleration by scattering and mirroring. Our model also predicts upstream anisotropies as high as 100% for highly oblique shocks whereas downstream distributions are nearly isotropic.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Energetic particle anisotropies at the termination shock 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 Energetic particle anisotropies at the termination shock, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Energetic particle anisotropies at the termination shock will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-968898