Evidence of Confinement of Solar-energetic Particles to Interplanetary Magnetic Field Lines
- Creators
- Chollet, E. E.
- Giacalone, J.
Abstract
We present new observations of solar-energetic particles (SEPs) associated with impulsive solar flares that show evidence for their confinement to interplanetary magnetic field lines. Some SEP events exhibit intermittent intensity dropouts becausemagnetic field lines filledwith and empty of particle flux mix together. The edges of these dropouts are observed to be very sharp, suggesting that particles cannot easily move from a filled to an empty field line in the time available during their transport from the Sun. In this paper, we perform high time-resolution observations of intensity fall-off at the edges of observed SEP dropouts in order to look for signatures of particle motion off field lines. However, the statistical study is dominated by one particularly intense event. The inferred length scale of the intensity decay is comparable to the gyroradii of the particles, suggesting that particles only rarely scatter off magnetic field lines during interplanetary transport.
Additional Information
© 2011 American Astronomical Society. Received 2010 April 5; accepted 2010 December 8; published 2011 January 20.Attached Files
Published - Chollet2011p13008Astrophys_J.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 22888
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110315-091124473
- Created
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2011-03-16Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field