Conversion of Magnetic-Field Energy and Energetic Particles in the Sun and Heliosphere
Reconnecting current sheets as sources of suprathermal electrons in the solar wind
Date Submitted
2017-04-10 20:45:36
Olga Khabarova
Valentina Zharkova (Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
Institute of terrestrial magnetism (IZMIRAN), Moscow, Russia
Suprathermal electrons in the solar wind are often used for diagnostics of local interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) configurations. The occurrence of a thin stripe of hot strahl(beaming) electrons in suprathermal electron pitch-angle distribution (PAD) spectrograms is interpreted as the direct connection to the solar corona, while the occurrence of two stripes/bi-directional strahls is believed to indicate a connection to two coronal sources rooted at the edges of an IMF loop. PADs of this sort are often observed during passages of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), assuming that ICMEs remain connected to the Sun. However, bi-directional strahls are often (i) associated with (i) closed magnetic structures of non-CME origin, and (ii) undoubtedly disconnected ICMEs. This suggests electron acceleration that occurrs directly in the solar wind. Using 3D PIC simulations of a passage of thermal particles through reconnecting current sheets(RCSs) of various origins, we show that protons and electrons have different temporal and spatial patterns, defining the dynamics of energetic particles in the vicinity of a RCS (Zharkova & Khabarova,ApJ, 2012, 2015). Magnetic reconnection accelerates particles up to tens MeV and determines a dominant direction of particle ejection from the RCS, allowing them to form bi-directional strahls that move sometimes perpendicular to the background IMF, but parallel to the local magnetic field (for example, along an ICME current sheet). These results allow us to suggest that at least some fraction of halo and strahls observed at 1 AU originates from reconnecting current sheets. The idea explains many previously obtained puzzling observational results.
Schedule
id
Monday
date time
09:00 - 10:30
09:30
Abstract
Reconnecting current sheets as sources of suprathermal electrons in the solar wind