Solar Energetic Electron Probes of Magnetic Cloud Field Line Lengths (Postprint)
Abstract
Magnetic clouds (MCs) are large interplanetary coronal mass ejections of enhanced and low variance fields with rotations indicative of magnetic flux ropes originally connected to the Sun. The MC flux rope models require field lines with larger pitch angles and longer lengths with increasing distance from the MCaxis. While the models can provide good fits to the in situ solar wind observations, there have not been definitive observational tests of the global magnetic field geometry, particularly for the field line lengths. However, impulsive solar energetic (E > 10 keV) electron events occasionally occur within an MC, and the electron onsets can be used to infer Le, the magnetic field line lengths traveled by the electrons from the Sun to the points in the MC where the electron onsets occur. We selected 8 MCs in and near which 30 solar electron events were observed by the 3DP instrument on the Wind spacecraft. We compared the corresponding Le values with calculated model field line lengths to test two MC models. Some limitations on the technique are imposed by variations of the models and uncertainty about MC boundary locations. We found generally poor correlations between the computed electron path lengths and the model field line lengths. Only one value of Le inside an MC, that of 18 October 1995, exceeded 3.2 AU, indicating an absence of the long path lengths expected in the highly wound outer regions of MC models. We briefly consider the implications for MC models.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 02, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA559014
Entities
People
- S. Krucker
- Stephen W. Kahler
- Á. Szabó
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory