Charged Particle Energization and Transport in Reservoirs throughout the Heliosphere: 1. Solar Energetic Particles. (September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Roelof, E C
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Number 642(2015)
• Publication Date: 2015-09
• Subjects: Physics -- Congresses; 530.5
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/642/1/012023
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1742-6588

Abstract

Abstract: "Reservoirs" of energetic charged particles are regions where the particle population is quasi-trapped in large-scale (relative to the gyroradii) magnetic field structures. Reservoirs are found throughout the heliosphere: the huge heliosheath (90<r<110 AU) between the termination shock and the heliopause; the domain of PUIs and ACRs within the solar wind itself; the inner solar system (inside of r<5AU) when filled with SEPs or CIRs; closed structures dragged out from the solar corona by CMEs; and the ring currents of the larger planets (Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, etc. ) when energized by magnetic storms. Energization (or cooling) of the charged particles within these reservoirs is produced by the interaction when the particle magnetic drifts have a component along the large-scale electric fields produced by plasma convection. The appropriate description of this transport is "weak scattering", in which the particle's first adiabatic invariant (magnetic moment) is approximately conserved while the particle itself moves rather freely along magnetic field lines. Considerable insight into the observed properties of energization processes can be gained from a remarkably simple equation that describes the particle's fractional time-rate-of-change of momentum (d ln p/dt) which depends only upon its pitch angle, the divergence of the plasma velocity (V⊥ ) transverse to the magnetic field), and the inner product of (V⊥ ) with the curvature vector of the field lines. The possibilities encompassed in this simple (but general) equation are quite rich, so we restrict our application of it in this paper to the compressive acceleration of SEPs within CMEs.