Engineering topics

Chaizy, P.

Publications and source records attributed to Chaizy, P..

4 records

NASA NTRS1995

Mirroring of fast solar flare electrons on a downstream corotating interaction region

We discuss an example of confinement of fast solar electrons by a discrete solar wind-interplanetary magnetic field structure on February 22, 1991. The structure is about 190,000 km in width and is clearly defined by changes in the direction of the magnetic field at the Ulysses spacecraft. This structure carries electrons moving toward the Sun as well as away from the Sun. A loss cone in the angular distribution of the fast electrons shows that mirroring, presumably magnetic, takes place downstream from the spacecraft. Following passage of this narrow structure, the return flux vanishes for 21 min after which time the mirroring resumes and persists for several hours. We identify the enhanced magnetic field region lying downstream from the Ulysses spacecraft that is responsible for the mirroring to be a corotating stream interaction region. Backstreaming suprathermal electron measurements by the Los Alamos National Laboratory plasma experiment on the Ulysses spacecraft support this interpretation.

Anderson, K. A.↗

NASA NTRS1994

There is no 'cometopause' at comet Halley

Immediately after the flybys at comet Halley by a fleet of spacecraft in 1986, Gringauz et al. (1986a) reported the detection by the Vega-2 spacecraft of a chemical and sharp plasma boundary, which they named the 'cometopause,' at a distance of about 1.6 x 10(exp 5) km from the nucleus. Gringauz and Verigin (1991) presented the 'cometopause' as a permanent feature of the solar wind - Halley type comet interaction at about 1 UA from the Sun. This permanent boundary presumably separates an upstream region dominated by the solar wind from the downstream region where heavy cometary ions dominate. We present here the analysis of the results of the Giotto positive ion cluster composition analyzer - Reme plasma analyzer (PICCA-RPA2) ion mass spectrometer and electron electrostatic analyzer - Reme plasma analyzer (EESA-RPA1) electron spectrometer data, which clearly show that there is no such boundary at comet Halley.

Reme, H.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Non-relativistic solar electron events during December 1990 - Results from Ulysses

Several groups of impulsive flare accelerated nonrelativistic solar electron events occurred in November and December 1990. In a total of 18 separate events, most show the characteristic dispersion in arrival times at the Ulysses spacecraft corresponding to travel time for the various particle energy groups. After maximum development, the electron intensities generally decay smoothly with characteristic times of 10 to 15 hours. In a few cases there are marked departures from this 'classic' behavior. On 15 December 1990, these departures are associated with a structure in the interplanetary magnetic field having a width of about 4 x 10 exp 6 km at 1.37 AU. The particle intensities inside this structure varied greatly with spatial position. Some of the changes occurred over distances as small as 3 x 10 exp 4 km. It is believed that this interplanetary structure had its origin in the complex magnetic fields that overlay the solar active region in which the electron accelerating flares occurred, and that it is these fields near the sun that determine access of the flare accelerated electrons to interplanetary field lines. A solar electron event on 11 December 1990 is similar in many respects to the one on 15 December. Neither of these events is directly related to an interplanetary shock wave.

Anderson, K. A.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Negative ions in the coma of Comet Halley

The detection of negatively charged cometary ions in the inner coma of Comet Halley is reported. These ions are observed in three broad mass peaks at 7-19, 22-65, and 85-110 AMU, with densities reaching greater than about 1/cu cm, about 0.05/cu cm, and about 0.04/cu cm, respectively, at a distance of about 2300 km from the nucleus. The ion species thought to be present include O(-), OH(-), C(-), CH(-), CN(-) and heavier complex CHO molecular ions. As negative ions are easily destroyed by solar radiation at about 1 AU, an efficient production mechanism, so far unidentified, is required to account for the observed densities. The detection of negative ions in the coma near 1 AU implies that negative ions should also be present in similar neutral gas and dust environment farther away from the sun. If the negative-ion densities are large enough, they could play an important part in physical processes such as radiative transfer or charge exchange.

Chaizy, P.↗