scholarly journals Relativistic electrons generated at Earth’s quasi-parallel bow shock

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. eaaw1368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Z. Liu ◽  
Vassilis Angelopoulos ◽  
San Lu
Keyword(s):  
Cosmic Ray ◽  
Bow Shock ◽  
Relativistic Electrons ◽  
Nonlinear Structure ◽  
Earth’S Bow Shock ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
The Universe

Plasma shocks are the primary means of accelerating electrons in planetary and astrophysical settings throughout the universe. Which category of shocks, quasi-perpendicular or quasi-parallel, accelerates electrons more efficiently is debated. Although quasi-perpendicular shocks are thought to be more efficient electron accelerators, relativistic electron energies recently observed at quasi-parallel shocks exceed theoretical expectations. Using in situ observations at Earth’s bow shock, we show that such relativistic electrons are generated by the interaction between the quasi-parallel shock and a related nonlinear structure, a foreshock transient, through two betatron accelerations. Our observations show that foreshock transients, overlooked previously, can increase electron acceleration efficiency at a quasi-parallel shock by an order of magnitude. Thus, quasi-parallel shocks could be more important in generating relativistic electrons, such as cosmic ray electrons, than previously thought.

scholarly journals Electron energization in quasi-parallel shocks

2020 ◽  
Vol 642 ◽  
pp. A47
Author(s):  
Adrian Hanusch ◽  
Tatyana V. Liseykina ◽  
Mikhail A. Malkov
Keyword(s):  
Supernova Remnants ◽  
Cosmic Ray ◽  
Bow Shock ◽  
Shock Acceleration ◽  
Diffusive Shock Acceleration ◽  
Proton Temperature ◽  
Earth’S Bow Shock ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Spatial Dimensionality

Context. In situ observations of energetic particles at the Earth’s bow-shock that are attainable by the satellite missions have fostered the opinion for a long time that electrons are most efficiently accelerated in a quasi-perpendicular shock geometry. However, shocks that are deemed to be responsible for the production of cosmic ray electrons and their radiation from sources such as supernova remnants are much more powerful and larger than the Earth’s bow-shock. Their remote observations and also in situ measurements at Saturn’s bow shock, that is, the strongest shock in the Solar System, suggest that electrons are accelerated very efficiently in the quasi-parallel shocks as well. Aims. In this paper we investigate the possibility that protons that are accelerated to high energies create sufficient wave turbulence, which is necessary for the electron preheating and subsequent injection into the diffusive shock acceleration in a quasi-parallel shock geometry. Methods. An additional test-particle-electron population, which is meant to be a low-density addition to the electron core-distribution on which the hybrid simulation operates, is introduced. Our purpose is to investigate how these electrons are energized by the “hybrid” electromagnetic field. The reduced spatial dimensionality allowed us to dramatically increase the number of macro-ions per numerical cell and achieve the converged results for the velocity distributions of test electrons. Results. We discuss the electron preheating mechanisms, which can make a significant part of thermal electrons accessible to the ion-driven waves observed in hybrid simulations. We find that the precursor wave field supplied by ions has a considerable potential to preheat the electrons before they are shocked at the subshock. Our results indicate that a downstream thermal equilibration of the hot test electrons and protons does not occur. Instead, the resulting electron-to-proton temperature ratio is a decreasing function of the shock Mach number, MA, which has a tendency for a saturation at high MA.

scholarly journals MESSENGER observations of planetary ion enhancements at Mercury’s northern magnetospheric cusp during Flux Transfer Event Showers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weijie Sun ◽  
James Slavin ◽  
Anna Milillo ◽  
Ryan Dewey ◽  
Stefano Orsini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Transfer Event ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Flux Transfer ◽  
Magnetospheric Cusp ◽  
Upward Moving ◽  
Entry Layer

Abstract At Mercury, several processes can release ions and neutrals out of the planet’s surface. Here we present enhancements of dayside planetary ions in the solar wind entry layer during flux transfer event (FTE) “showers” near Mercury’s northern magnetospheric cusp. In this entry layer, solar wind ions are accelerated and move downward (i.e. planetward) toward the cusps, which sputter upward-moving planetary ions within 1 minute. The precipitation rate is enhanced by an order of magnitude during FTE showers and the neutral density of the exosphere can vary by >10% due to this FTE-driven sputtering. These in situ observations of enhanced planetary ions in the entry layer likely correspond to an escape channel of Mercury’s planetary ions, and the large-scale variations of the exosphere observed on minute-timescales by ground-based telescopes. Comprehensive, future multi-point measurements made by BepiColombo will greatly enhance our understanding of the processes contributing to Mercury’s dynamic exosphere and magnetosphere.

scholarly journals Revisiting particle sizing using greyscale optical array probes: evaluation using laboratory experiments and synthetic data

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 3067-3079
Author(s):  
Sebastian J. O'Shea ◽  
Jonathan Crosier ◽  
James Dorsey ◽  
Waldemar Schledewitz ◽  
Ian Crawford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Models ◽  
Synthetic Data ◽  
Mie Scattering ◽  
Sample Volume ◽  
Research Aircraft ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Ambient Data ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Synthetic Datasets

Abstract. In situ observations from research aircraft and instrumented ground sites are important contributions to developing our collective understanding of clouds and are used to inform and validate numerical weather and climate models. Unfortunately, biases in these datasets may be present, which can limit their value. In this paper, we discuss artefacts which may bias data from a widely used family of instrumentation in the field of cloud physics, optical array probes (OAPs). Using laboratory and synthetic datasets, we demonstrate how greyscale analysis can be used to filter data, constraining the sample volume of the OAP and improving data quality, particularly at small sizes where OAP data are considered unreliable. We apply the new methodology to ambient data from two contrasting case studies: one warm cloud and one cirrus cloud. In both cases the new methodology reduces the concentration of small particles (<60 µm) by approximately an order of magnitude. This significantly improves agreement with a Mie-scattering spectrometer for the liquid case and with a holographic imaging probe for the cirrus case. Based on these results, we make specific recommendations to instrument manufacturers, instrument operators and data processors about the optimal use of greyscale OAPs. The data from monoscale OAPs are unreliable and should not be used for particle diameters below approximately 100 µm.

scholarly journals Validation of first chemistry mode retrieval results from new limb-<i>imaging</i> FTS GLORIA with correlative MIPAS-STR observations

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 12691-12717 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Woiwode ◽  
O. Suminska-Ebersoldt ◽  
H. Oelhaf ◽  
M. Höpfner ◽  
G. V. Belyaev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
First Results ◽  
Research Aircraft ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Field Deployment ◽  
Cross Track ◽  
Stratospheric Clouds

Abstract. We report first chemistry mode retrieval results from the new airborne limb-imaging infrared FTS (Fourier transform spectrometer) GLORIA and comparisons with observations by the conventional airborne limb-scanning infrared FTS MIPAS-STR. For GLORIA, the flights aboard the high-altitude research aircraft M55 Geophysica during the ESSenCe campaign (ESa Sounder Campaign 2011) were the very first in field deployment after several years of development. The simultaneous observations of GLORIA and MIPAS-STR during the flight on 16 December 2011 inside the polar vortex and under the conditions of optically partially transparent polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) provided us the unique opportunity to compare the observations by two different infrared FTS generations directly. The retrieval results of temperature, HNO3, O3, H2O, CFC-11 and CFC-12 show reasonable agreement of GLORIA with MIPAS-STR and collocated in-situ observations. For the horizontally binned hyperspectral limb-images, the GLORIA sampling outnumbered the horizontal cross-track sampling of MIPAS-STR by up to one order of magnitude. Depending on the target parameter, typical vertical resolutions of 0.5 to 2.0 km were obtained for GLORIA and are typically by factors of 2 to 4 better compared to MIPAS-STR. While the improvement of the performance, characterisation and data processing of GLORIA are subject of ongoing work, the presented first results already demonstrate the considerable gain in sampling and vertical resolution achieved with GLORIA.

scholarly journals Revisiting particle sizing using grayscale optical array probes evaluation using laboratory experiments and synthetic data

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian J. O'Shea ◽  
Jonathan Crosier ◽  
James Dorsey ◽  
Waldemar Schledewitz ◽  
Ian Crawford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Models ◽  
Synthetic Data ◽  
Mie Scattering ◽  
Sample Volume ◽  
Research Aircraft ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Ambient Data ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Synthetic Datasets

Abstract. In-situ observations from research aircraft and instrumented ground sites are important contributions to developing our collective understanding of clouds, and are used to inform and validate numerical weather and climate models. Unfortunately, biases in these datasets may be present, which can limit their value. In this paper, we discuss artefacts which may bias data from a widely used family of instrumentation in the field of cloud physics, Optical Array Probes (OAPs). Using laboratory and synthetic datasets, we demonstrate how greyscale analysis can be used to filter data, constraining the sample volume of the OAP, and improving data quality particularly at small sizes where OAP data are considered unreliable. We apply the new methodology to ambient data from two contrasting case studies: one warm cloud and one cirrus cloud. In both cases the new methodology reduces the concentration of small particles (< 60 µm) by approximately an order of magnitude. This significantly improves agreement with a Mie scattering spectrometer for the liquid case and with a holographic imaging probe for the cirrus case. Based on these results, we make specific recommendations to instrument manufacturers, instrument operators, and data processors about the optimal use of greyscale OAP’s. We also raise the issue of bias in OAP’s which have no greyscale capability.

scholarly journals Ion distributions upstream and downstream of the Earth's bow shock: first results from Vlasiator

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 2207-2212 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Pokhotelov ◽  
S. von Alfthan ◽  
Y. Kempf ◽  
R. Vainio ◽  
H. E. J. Koskinen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Distribution Functions ◽  
Bow Shock ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Ion Distribution ◽  
Plasma Kinetics ◽  
Ion Distributions ◽  
Spatial Dimensions ◽  
First Results ◽  
Earth’S Bow Shock

Abstract. A novel hybrid-Vlasov code, Vlasiator, is developed for global simulations of magnetospheric plasma kinetics. The code is applied to model the collisionless bow shock on scales of the Earth's magnetosphere in two spatial dimensions and three dimensions in velocity space retrieving ion distribution functions over the entire foreshock and magnetosheath regions with unprecedented detail. The hybrid-Vlasov approach produces noise-free uniformly discretized ion distribution functions comparable to those measured in situ by spacecraft. Vlasiator can reproduce features of the ion foreshock and magnetosheath well known from spacecraft observations, such as compressional magnetosonic waves generated by backstreaming ion populations in the foreshock and mirror modes in the magnetosheath. An overview of ion distributions from various regions of the bow shock is presented, demonstrating the great opportunities for comparison with multi-spacecraft observations.

scholarly journals Non-thermal emission from cosmic rays accelerated in H II regions

2019 ◽  
Vol 630 ◽  
pp. A72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Padovani ◽  
Alexandre Marcowith ◽  
Álvaro Sánchez-Monge ◽  
Fanyi Meng ◽  
Peter Schilke
Keyword(s):  
Cosmic Rays ◽  
Thermal Radiation ◽  
Thermal Emission ◽  
Cosmic Ray ◽  
Local Source ◽  
Relativistic Electrons ◽  
Deep South ◽  
Fermi Acceleration ◽  
First Order ◽  
Order Of Magnitude

Context. Radio observations at metre-centimetre wavelengths shed light on the nature of the emission of H II regions. Usually this category of objects is dominated by thermal radiation produced by ionised hydrogen, namely protons and electrons. However, a number of observational studies have revealed the existence of H II regions with a mixture of thermal and non-thermal radiation. The latter represents a clue as to the presence of relativistic electrons. However, neither the interstellar cosmic-ray electron flux nor the flux of secondary electrons, produced by primary cosmic rays through ionisation processes, is high enough to explain the observed flux densities. Aims. We investigate the possibility of accelerating local thermal electrons up to relativistic energies in H II region shocks. Methods. We assumed that relativistic electrons can be accelerated through the first-order Fermi acceleration mechanism and we estimated the emerging electron fluxes, the corresponding flux densities, and the spectral indexes. Results. We find flux densities of the same order of magnitude of those observed. In particular, we applied our model to the “deep south” (DS) region of Sagittarius B2 and we succeeded in reproducing the observed flux densities with an accuracy of less than 20% as well as the spectral indexes. The model also gives constraints on magnetic field strength (0.3–4 mG), density (1–9 × 104 cm−3), and flow velocity in the shock reference frame (33–50 km s−1) expected in DS. Conclusions. We suggest a mechanism able to accelerate thermal electrons inside H II regions through the first-order Fermi acceleration. The existence of a local source of relativistic electrons can explain the origin of both the observed non-thermal emission and the corresponding spectral indexes.

scholarly journals The Global Interaction of Comets with the Solar Wind

1991 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 1125-1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. R. Flammer
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Heliocentric Distance ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Bow Shock ◽  
Flow Transition ◽  
The Sun ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Comet Halley

AbstractThe global interaction of the solar wind with a comet as it orbits the Sun is reviewed. After a brief survey of the flow transition regions observed at comet Halley is presented, theoretical models are given for the cometocentric distance of the bow shock, the cometopause, and the ionopause. In addition, predictions are made as to what heliocentric distance these boundaries should form at. The results of these models are compared with the in situ observations at comet Halley.

scholarly journals Solar Orbiter’s first Venus flyby: observations from the Radio andPlasma Wave instrument

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Hadid ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Plasma Waves ◽  
Bow Shock ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Gravity Assist ◽  
Tail Region ◽  
Plasma Properties ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Orbit Geometry ◽  
High Cadence

&lt;p&gt;On December 27, 2020, Solar Orbiter completed its first gravity assist manoeuvre of Venus. While this flyby was performed to provide the spacecraft with sufficient velocity to get closer to the Sun and observe its poles from progressively higher inclinations, the Radio and Plasma Wave (RPW) consortium, along with other operational in-situ instruments, had the opportunity to perform high cadence measurements and study the plasma properties in the induced magnetosphere of Venus. In this work we present an overview of the in situ observations performed by RPW, inside the induced magnetosphere of Venus, during this first encounter of Solar Orbiter.&lt;br /&gt;These data allowed conclusive identification of various waves at low and higher frequencies than previously observed and detailed investigation regarding the structure of the induced magnetosphere of Venus. Furthermore, noting that prior studies were mainly focused on the magnetosheath region and could only reach 10-12 Venus radii (RV) down the tail, the particular orbit geometry of Solar Orbiter&amp;#8217;s VGAM1, allowed the first investigation of the nature of the plasma waves continuously from the bow-shock to the magnetosheath, extending to &amp;#8764; 70 R V in the far distant tail region.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals A comparison of bow shock models with Cluster observations during low Alfvén Mach number magnetic clouds

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 1011-1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Turc ◽  
D. Fontaine ◽  
P. Savoini ◽  
H. Hietala ◽  
E. K. J. Kilpua
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Mach Number ◽  
Interplanetary Medium ◽  
Normal Direction ◽  
Bow Shock ◽  
The Other ◽  
Magnetic Clouds ◽  
Shock Models ◽  
In Situ Observations

Abstract. Magnetic clouds (MCs) are very geoeffective solar wind structures. Their properties in the interplanetary medium have been extensively studied, yet little is known about their characteristics in the Earth's magnetosheath. The Cluster spacecraft offer the opportunity to observe MCs in the magnetosheath, but before MCs reach the magnetosphere, their structure is altered when they interact with the terrestrial bow shock (BS). The physics taking place at the BS strongly depends on ΘBn, the angle between the shock normal and the interplanetary magnetic field. However, in situ observations of the BS during an MC's crossing are seldom available. In order to relate magnetosheath observations to solar wind conditions, we need to rely on a model to determine the shock's position and normal direction. Yet during MCs, the models tend to be less accurate, because the Alfvén Mach number (MA) is often significantly lower than in regular solar wind. On the contrary, the models are generally optimised for high MA conditions. In this study, we compare the predictions of four widely used models available in the literature (Wu et al., 2000; Chapman and Cairns, 2003; Jeřáb et al., 2005; Měrka et al., 2005b) to Cluster's dayside BS crossings observed during five MC events. Our analysis shows that the ΘBn angle is well predicted by all four models. On the other hand, the Jeřáb et al. (2005) model yields the best estimates of the BS position during low MA MCs. The other models locate the BS either too far from or too close to Earth. The results of this paper can be directly used to estimate the BS parameters in all studies of MC interaction with Earth's magnetosphere.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document