NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission1 recently plunged through the inner heliosphere of the Sun to its perihelia, about 24 million kilometres from the Sun. Previous studies farther from the Sun ...(performed mostly at a distance of 1 astronomical unit) indicate that solar energetic particles are accelerated from a few kiloelectronvolts up to near-relativistic energies via at least two processes: ‘impulsive’ events, which are usually associated with magnetic reconnection in solar flares and are typically enriched in electrons, helium-3 and heavier ions2, and ‘gradual’ events3,4, which are typically associated with large coronal-mass-ejection-driven shocks and compressions moving through the corona and inner solar wind and are the dominant source of protons with energies between 1 and 10 megaelectronvolts. However, some events show aspects of both processes and the electron–proton ratio is not bimodally distributed, as would be expected if there were only two possible processes5. These processes have been very difficult to resolve from prior observations, owing to the various transport effects that affect the energetic particle population en route to more distant spacecraft6. Here we report observations of the near-Sun energetic particle radiation environment over the first two orbits of the probe. We find a variety of energetic particle events accelerated both locally and remotely including by corotating interaction regions, impulsive events driven by acceleration near the Sun, and an event related to a coronal mass ejection. We provide direct observations of the energetic particle radiation environment in the region just above the corona of the Sun and directly explore the physics of particle acceleration and transport.
The prediction of a supersonic solar wind
was first confirmed by spacecraft near Earth
and later by spacecraft at heliocentric distances as small as 62 solar radii
. These missions showed that plasma ...accelerates as it emerges from the corona, aided by unidentified processes that transport energy outwards from the Sun before depositing it in the wind. Alfvénic fluctuations are a promising candidate for such a process because they are seen in the corona and solar wind and contain considerable energy
. Magnetic tension forces the corona to co-rotate with the Sun, but any residual rotation far from the Sun reported until now has been much smaller than the amplitude of waves and deflections from interacting wind streams
. Here we report observations of solar-wind plasma at heliocentric distances of about 35 solar radii
, well within the distance at which stream interactions become important. We find that Alfvén waves organize into structured velocity spikes with duration of up to minutes, which are associated with propagating S-like bends in the magnetic-field lines. We detect an increasing rotational component to the flow velocity of the solar wind around the Sun, peaking at 35 to 50 kilometres per second-considerably above the amplitude of the waves. These flows exceed classical velocity predictions of a few kilometres per second, challenging models of circulation in the corona and calling into question our understanding of how stars lose angular momentum and spin down as they age
.
Abstract High-energy neutral solar radiation in the form of γ -rays and neutrons is produced as secondary products in solar flares. The characteristics of this emission can provide key information ...regarding the energization of charged particles, particularly when primary particles remain trapped in the corona. The Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (IS⊙IS) suite on Parker Solar Probe is composed of instruments primarily intended to measure energetic charged particles. However, the High Energy Telescope (HET) in IS⊙IS was also designed with a supplementary neutral mode intended to measure γ -rays and neutrons. HET observed its first clear solar γ -ray event in connection with a hard X-ray flare, the eruption of a coronal mass ejection, and a solar energetic particle event on 2022 September 5. The X-ray spectral shape was observed to harden over the course of the event, culminating with the observation of γ -rays by HET. A coincident enhancement in the lower-energy Energetic Particle Instrument (EPI-Lo) was also observed, likely produced by incident solar γ -rays despite the EPI-Lo instrument not having any special neutral measurement capabilities. We use Monte Carlo modeling to reconstruct the incident γ -ray spectrum based on the measured spectrum to demonstrate that the combination of IS⊙IS instruments can measure hard X-rays and γ -rays from ∼60 keV–7 MeV. Despite the fact that this is a supplemental science goal of the mission, the capability of the IS⊙IS instruments to measure γ -rays is important for the study of this population due to the very limited instruments currently observing the Sun in γ -rays.
Abstract
We present analyses of 0.05–2 MeV ions from the 2022 February 16 energetic storm particle event observed by Parker Solar Probe's (PSP) IS⊙IS/EPI-Lo instrument at 0.35 au from the Sun. This ...event was characterized by an enhancement in ion fluxes from a quiet background, increasing gradually with time with a nearly flat spectrum, rising sharply near the arrival of the coronal mass ejection (CME)–driven shock, becoming nearly a power-law spectrum, then decaying exponentially afterward, with a rate that was independent of energy. From the observed fluxes, we determine diffusion coefficients, finding that far upstream of the shock the diffusion coefficients are nearly independent of energy, with a value of 10
20
cm
2
s
−1
. Near the shock, the diffusion coefficients are more than 1 order of magnitude smaller and increase nearly linearly with energy. We also determine the source of energetic particles, by comparing ratios of the intensities at the shock to estimates of the quiet-time intensity to predictions from diffusive shock acceleration theory. We conclude that the source of energetic ions is mostly the solar wind for this event. We also present potential interpretations of the near-exponential decay of the intensity behind the shock. One possibility we suggest is that the shock was overexpanding when it crossed PSP and the energetic particle intensity decreased behind the shock to fill the expanding volume. Overexpanding CMEs could well be more common closer to the Sun, and this is an example of such a case.
The New Horizons spacecraft flew past the Kuiper Belt object (486958) Arrokoth (also known as 2014 MU69) in January 2019. Because of the great distance to the outer Solar System and limited ...bandwidth, it will take until late 2020 to downlink all the spacecraft's observations back to Earth. Three papers in this issue analyze recently downlinked data, including the highest-resolution images taken during the encounter (see the Perspective by Jewitt). Spencer et al. examined Arrokoth's geology and geophysics using stereo imaging, dated the surface using impact craters, and produced a geomorphological map. Grundy et al. investigated the composition of the surface using color imaging and spectroscopic data and assessed Arrokoth's thermal emission using microwave radiometry. McKinnon et al. used simulations to determine how Arrokoth formed: Two gravitationally bound objects gently spiraled together during the formation of the Solar System. Together, these papers determine the age, composition, and formation process of the most pristine object yet visited by a spacecraft.
Neutral particle dominance over charged particles in Saturn's magnetosphere was evident prior to Cassini's arrival at Saturn in 2004. The observation of active plumes emanating from the south pole of ...Enceladus suggests that this small moon is likely to be the principal source of neutrals in Saturn's magnetosphere. Cassini has flown through the plumes on several occasions, and the resulting data imply the source rate is variable (∼1027 to 1028 water molecules/s). Here we use Cassini plasma spectrometer and Cassini magnetospheric imaging instrument observations to update neutral particle lifetimes and then use the most recent processed versions of Cassini ion neutral mass spectrometer observations made during encounters E2, E3, and E5 to constrain a 3‐D multispecies neutral particle model. This procedure improves constraints on the plume source rate, ejection velocity, and plume divergence. We find that the plume source rate varies by at least a factor of 4 over the 7 month period considered. Additionally, we find that previous estimates of the plume source rates based on E2 observations are most likely overestimated because the background neutral torus has not been adequately account for. On the basis of these results, we discuss the implications of this variability on global neutral particle distributions.
The Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (IS IS) suite on board NASA's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observed six distinct enhancements in the intensities of suprathermal-through-energetic (∼0.03-3 ...MeV nucleon−1) He ions associated with corotating or stream interaction regions (CIR or SIR) during its first two orbits. Our results from a survey of the time histories of the He intensities, spectral slopes, and anisotropies and the event-averaged energy spectra during these events show the following: (1) In the two strongest enhancements, seen at 0.35 and 0.85 au, the higher-energy ions arrive and maximize later than those at lower energies. In the event seen at 0.35 au, the He ions arrive when PSP was away from the SIR trailing edge and entered the rarefaction region in the high-speed stream. (2) The He intensities either are isotropic or show sunward anisotropies in the spacecraft frame. (3) In all events, the energy spectra between ∼0.2 and 1 MeV nucleon−1 are power laws of the form ∝E−2. In the two strongest events, the energy spectra are well represented by flat power laws between ∼0.03 and 0.4 MeV nucleon−1 modulated by exponential rollovers between ∼0.4 and 3 MeV nucleon−1. We conclude that the SIR-associated He ions originate from sources or shocks beyond PSP's location rather than from acceleration processes occurring at nearby portions of local compression regions. Our results also suggest that rarefaction regions that typically follow the SIRs facilitate easier particle transport throughout the inner heliosphere such that low-energy ions do not undergo significant energy loss due to adiabatic deceleration, contrary to predictions of existing models.
We analyze two specific features of the intense solar energetic particle (SEP) event observed by Parker Solar Probe (PSP) between 2020 November 29 and 2020 December 2. The interplanetary counterpart ...of the coronal mass ejection (CME) on 2020 November 29 that generated the SEP event (hereafter ICME-2) arrived at PSP (located at 0.8 au from the Sun) on 2020 December 1. ICME-225 was preceded by the passage of an interplanetary shock at 18:35 UT on 2020 November 30 (hereafter26S2), that in turn was preceded by another ICME (i.e., ICME-1) observed in situ on 2020 November 30. The two interesting features of this SEP event at PSP are: First, the presence of the intervening ICME-1 affected the evolution of the.8 MeV proton intensity time profiles resulting in the observation of inverted energy spectra throughout the passage of ICME-1. Second, the sheath region preceding ICME-2 was characterized by weak magnetic fields compared to those measured immediately after the passage of the shock S2 and during the passage of ICME-2. Comparison with prior SEP events measured at 1 au but with similar characteristics indicates that (1) low-energy particles accelerated by S2 were excluded from propagating throughout ICME-1, and (2) the low magnetic fields measured in the sheath of ICME-2 resulted from the properties of the upstream solar wind encountered by ICME-2 that was propagated into the sheath; whereas the high energetic particle energy density in the sheath did not play a dominant role in the formation of these low magnetic fields.
We draw a comparison between a solar energetic particle event associated with the release of a slow coronal mass ejection close to the Sun, and the energetic particle population produced in high ...current density field-aligned current structures associated with auroral phenomena in planetary magnetospheres. We suggest that this process is common in CME development and lift off in the corona, and may account for the electron populations that generate Type III radio bursts, as well as for the prompt energetic ion and electron populations typically observed in interplanetary space.
Abstract On 2022 September 5, Parker Solar Probe (Parker) observed a large solar energetic particle (SEP) event at the unprecedented distance of only 15 R S from the Sun. The observations from the ...Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (IS⊙IS) obtained over the course of this event are remarkably rich, and an overview is presented here. IS⊙IS is capable of measuring ions from 20 keV to over 100 MeV nuc −1 and electrons from 30 keV to 6 MeV; here, we primarily focus on the proton and helium measurements above 80 keV. Among the surprising results are evidence of inverse velocity dispersion at energies above 1 MeV during the onset of the event, a sharp decrease in the energetic particle intensities at all energies at the interplanetary shock crossing, and repeated short durations of highly anisotropic sunward flow. Many changes in the SEP intensities, anisotropy, and spectral steepness are coincident with solar wind structure boundaries identified using the Parker solar wind magnetic field and plasma data. However, there are significant changes that are not correlated with any clearly visible solar wind variation. The observations presented here serve as an introduction to a complex event with numerous opportunities for future, more in-depth studies.
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