Research at the stanford center for radar astronomy semiannual report no. 4, 1 jul. - 31 dec. 1964
Radio and radar astronomy studies of lunar and planetary atmospheres and surfaces, and radar studies of sun and interplanetary medium
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Radio and radar astronomy studies of lunar and planetary atmospheres and surfaces, and radar studies of sun and interplanetary medium
Observations of the interplanetary medium are considered together with the structure of the solar atmosphere and the kinetic properties of the interplanetary plasma. Methods of gas kinetics and continuum flows are examined, taking into account microscopic and macroscopic representations, the kinetic flow equations, the formal solution of the Vlasov equation, and the continuum flow equations. The collective particle behavior of that interplanetary gas is discussed along with the hydrodynamic coronal expansion, a wave-pump problem, the free expansion phenomenon, and a generalized free expansion problem.
A model is developed for type III radio emission in the interplanetary medium based on recent data on Langmuir waves, associated with ion sound waves, density fluctuations in the interplanetary plasma, streaming electrons and radio emission. In this model, Langmuir wave growth is suppressed by refraction in field-aligned density irregularities except near density minima where clumps of Langmuir waves form. Quasi-linear relaxation limits the growth of the Langmuir waves in the clumps. The radio emission, which is attributed to coalescence of the Langmuir waves with associated ion sound waves, saturates at a brightness temperature equal to the effective temperature of the Langmuir waves, estimated to be between 10 to the 15th and 10 to the 16th K from obserrvational data. The model is consistent with all the relevant data on type III events. In particular, it accounts naturally for observed brightness temperatures of type III bursts.
The report summarizes the major results obtained over the last four years in the following areas: (1) transport in interplanetary space which includes solar particle observations combined with theoretical efforts to develop models which simulate the dynamics of the event; (2) transport in the solar corona and release of particles in the interplanetary medium; and (3) characteristics of source spectra and acceleration models. Modelling the propagation of solar cosmic rays through interplanetary space and establishing the magnitude and the radial and energy dependence of the diffusion coefficient K are considered. An important result due to statistical observation is that the coronal propagation must be independent of or weakly dependent on both rigidity and energy. Increasing evidence is found for prolonged injection at the sun.
The most striking feature of the night sky in the tropics is the zodiacal light, which appears as a cone in the west after sunset and in the east before sunrise. It is caused by sunlight scattered or absorbed by particles in the interplanetary medium. The zodiacal light is the only source of information about the integrated properties of the whole ensemble of interplanetary dust. The brightness and polarization in different directions and at different colors can provide information on the optical properties and spatial distribution of the scattering particles. The zodiacal light arises from two independent physical processes related to the scattering of solar continuum radiation by interplanetary dust and to thermal emission which arises from solar radiation that is absorbed by interplanetary dust and reemitted mainly at infrared wavelengths. Attention is given to observational parameters of zodiacal light, the methods of observation, errors and absolute calibration, and the observed characteristics of zodiacal light.
The magnetopause electron layer in the distant magnetotail is an annular region encircling the magnetopause in which bursts of tailward-streaming energetic (E 200 keV) electrons are almost continuously present. Sunward-streaming electron bursts with time scales and energy spectral indices similar to those of layer bursts are sometimes observed in interplanetary space upstream of the Earth. Evidence is presented to show that the layer bursts and the interplanetary bursts have a common source. With the aid of a new coordinate system, geocentric interplanetary medium coordinates, appropriate for describing the access of energetic charged particles in the inner magnetosheath to a spacecraft located in interplanetary space, it is shown that the interplanetary bursts occur predominantly on the sunward extension of the field lines associated with the magnetopause electron layer.
Results are presented of numerical simulations of cosmic ray drift due to perturbations in the interplanetary medium affecting solar-terrestrial parameters. Computations were performed for a model spherical heliosphere of radius 25 AU, with an interplanetary magnetic field in the shape of an Archimedean spiral with magnitude of 5 gamma at 1 AU, corresponding to a wind velocity of 400 km/sec, and diffusion coefficients corresponding to the assumption that the parallel mean free path is somewhat larger han the cyclotron radius at earth orbit, and its spatial dependence is proportional to the gyroradius. It is found that perturbations in the heliospheric equatorial regions affect galactic cosmic rays more effectively when the Northern Hemisphere heliospheric magnetic field is directed inward rather than outward, with perturbations in the parallel drift coefficient more effective than perturbations in solar wind velocity or perpendicular drift velocity. Results are consistent with the observed variation of the correlation between the geomagnetic aa index and the neutron monitor counting rate on Mt. Washington with the solar cycle.
Simulation of wear magnetic fields observed in magnetosphere, turbulent boundary layer, and interplanetary medium regions of space
During the intense solar flare activity in March 1991 a number of unusual radio emission and Langmuir wave phenomena were observed by the radio and plasma wave (URAP) experiment on the Ulysses spacecraft. These phenomena were associated with unusual conditions in the interplanetary medium (IPM) presumably resulting from intense solar activity. Some of these URAP observations cannot be explained by mechanisms usually attributed to interplanetary (IP) radio emissions and Langmuir wave activity and require other interpretations.
The most significant data on fields and plasmas in the outer solar system, based on observations by Pioneer 10 and 11, are reviewed. Attention is given to (1) corotating shocks and the evolution of high speed solar wind streams, (2) the effect of the changing structure of the interplanetary medium on energetic particles, (3) the propagation of flare-generated shocks through the outer solar system, (4) radial gradients in the solar wind and interplanetary field, and (5) the dependence of the interplanetary sector structure on heliographic latitude.
Magnetic-field and plasma-flux measurements by explorer 10 in traversing the geomagnetic field and extending into the interplanetary medium
Magnetic field and plasma flux measurements by explorer x in traversing the geomagnetic field and extending into the interplanetary medium
Cosmic ray intensity variations measured by GM COUNTER telescope onboard Imp I satellite for study of interplanetary medium
Current investigations relating to energetic particles and the electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic fields associated with the earth, the sun, the moon, the planets, comets, and the interplanetary medium are reported. Primary emphasis is on observational work using a wide diversity of intruments on satellites of the earth and the moon and on planetary and interplanetary spacecraft, and on phenomenological analysis and interpretation. Secondary emphasis is given to closely related observational work by ground based radio-astronomical and optical techniques, and to theoretical problems in plasma physics as relevant to solar, planetary, and interplanetary phenomena.
Dust is injected into the interplanetary medium by both comets and asteroids and there is reason to believe that particles from both of these types of sources are represented in the population of interplanetary dust collected in the stratosphere. The presence of isotopic anomalies and of adjacent mineral and carbonaceous phases that are chemically unequilibrated indicates that these particles contain primitive materials that have avoided many of the alteration processes that have affected most other extraterrestrial materials since their aggregation in the Solar nebula. This suggests that many of the subcomponents of the collected dust may have a chemical and isotopic 'memory' that extends back through the formation of the Solar System and therefore reflects the properties of interstellar dust populations. Indeed, it is possible that some of the subcomponents of the collected dust could have been true interstellar dust grains prior to the formation of the Solar nebula. The implications of this possibility will be discussed in light of our present knowledge of interplanetary dust.
Here we discuss the effect that the emergence of flux with a polarity opposed to that previously established in a certain photospheric region. can have on the magnetic structure of the solar atmosphere. We show that such a flux emergence may lead to the ejection of coronal material into the interplanetary medium (a CME) and also to a rapid change in the velocity of the solar wind from the region, which may eventually lead to the formation of an interplanetary shock.
Intense fluxes of charged particles associated with disturbances in interplanetary medium during 1966
The large-scale structure of the solar wind is reviewed on the basis of experimental space measurements acquired over approximately the last decade. The observations cover the fading portion of the last solar cycle up through the maximum of the present cycle. The character of the interplanetary medium is considered from the viewpoint of the temporal behavior of the solar wind over increasingly longer time intervals, the average properties of the various solar wind parameters and their interrelationships. Interplanetary-terrestrial relationships and the expected effects of heliographic lattitude and radial distance are briefly discussed.