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At least 271 records · Page 15

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NASA NTRS1971

A note on the acceleration phase of high-energy particles in the solar flare on 7 July, 1966.

The acceleration phase of solar cosmic rays and relativistic electrons is studied on the basis of the observational data available on the optical, radio, X-ray, and particle events associated with the solar flare that occurred on July 7, 1966. The generating process of hydromagnetic shock waves which excited the type-II radio burst detected at a frequency below about 100 MHz is also discussed. The results of the study suggest that no secondary acceleration process after the explosive phase can contribute much to the generation of high energy particles. The ejection of solar cosmic rays and relativistic electrons seems to be related to the expansion of the magnetic bulge which can trap accelerated electrons from the triggering region of solar flares.

Sakurai, K.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Discontinuities and shock waves in the interplanetary medium and their interaction with the magnetosphere.

The discontinuous structure of the solar wind is described with emphasis on properties related to geomagnetic impulses. Some of the discontinuities are clearly hydromagnetic shocks and tangential discontinuities, and can produce a significant change in the momentum flux at the magnetosphere boundary. Such a change generates an impulse which propagates through the magnetosphere to the earth where it is observed world-wide as an impulse in magnetograms. The propagation process is not reviewed here, but the relation between the initial cause (discontinuity) and the final effect (geomagnetic impulse) is reviewed in detail. The various types of impulses are examined, and are related qualitatively to the various types of discontinuities. The magnitude of an impulse is related to the change in the momentum flux. The propagation time and the rise time depend on the propagation process rather than on the initial state.

Burlaga, L. F.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Observations of fast auroral waves.

Results of simultaneous observation of a fast wave event from the Ester Dome Observatory (EDO) near College, Alaska, the Poker Flat Rocket Launching Facility (PKR), and Fort Yukon, Alaska (FYU). The display occurred on Mar. 27, 1971, and the general morphology is described and discussed. It is suggested that fast auroral waves occur when a preceding substorm has enhanced the particle population in the region of the magnetosphere near L = 6 in the midnight sector; then transverse hydromagnetic waves, associated with the onset of further local substorm activity, become visible through their action on this enhanced particle population as they propagate inwards in the equatorial region.

Boyd, J. S.↗

NASA NTRS1972

The earth's bow shock in an oblique interplanetary field.

The pressure, magnetic field, temperature, particle density, and stream velocity throughout the magnetosheath have been calculated in the plane containing the interplanetary field and solar wind velocity vector for various orientations of the interplanetary magnetic field and various assumed ratios of specific heats of the compressed solar wind. Jump conditions at the bow shock gave initial conditions in the shocked plasma from which the appropriate hydromagnetic equations (for blunt bodies in the subsonic region near the subsolar point and for the method of characteristics in the supersonic region back in the tail) were integrated numerically back to the surface of the magnetosphere. Explicit consideration of the magnetic field shows that a net asymmetrical force on the magnetopause produces a side force, or 'lift' in addition to the well-known drag on the magnetosphere.

Shen, W.-W.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Dissipation mechanisms in a pair of solar-wind discontinuities.

A pair of sharp closely spaced discontinuities in the solar wind was recorded by the high time resolution instruments aboard Ogo 5 on Mar. 14, 1968. There is plasma turbulence within the double structure, and there appear to be small-amplitude hydromagnetic waves radiating from the discontinuities. The generation of the plasma turbulence is discussed in terms of magnetic drift waves. Although it seems probable that the surfaces are tangential discontinuities, arguments are also advanced that the double structure may represent the Petschek mechanism in which rapid field-line merging occurs between standing waves.

Unti, T. W. J.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Solar wind for a magnetized plasma with tensor plasma pressure.

A solar wind model for a magnetized solar wind is presented using one-fluid hydromagnetic equations with generalized polytrope equations of state for the two tensor components of the plasma pressure. Fluid and magnetic field variables are calculated at the Earth using certain boundary conditions at the Sun. The azimuthal velocity agrees with observed values and explains the considerable loss of angular momentum from the Sun by the solar wind. The results are good for most variables but suggest that a two-fluid model with electrons at higher temperatures and smaller temperature anisotropy ratios than the ions would give improved agreement for some quantities.

Tan, M.↗

NASA NTRS1972

The solar wind near the sun - The solar envelope.

Recent observational data and models for the structure of the solar envelope are discussed, with emphasis on those physical processes in the envelope which are decisive in determining solar wind states at 1 AU. Diffusion of relativistic solar flare protons, collisionless damping of a variable flux of hydromagnetic waves, heat transfer from electrons to protons, acceleration by Alfven waves, and magnetic field effects are examined from the viewpoint of possible contributions to solar wind behavior.

Burlaga, L. F.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Modification of the Rankine-Hugoniot relations for shocks in space.

The Rankine-Hugoniot (R-H) equations for hydromagnetic shocks are extended to take into consideration the energy flux and momentum flux due to waves and/or turbulence and/or heat flow in the vicinity of shocks. Eighteen shocks obseved in space were analyzed. It is found that, in order to satisfy the R-H relations with the values of measured parameters in space, waves and/or turbulence and/or heat flow are needed for the shocks with a Mach number of greater than 2, and no waves and/or turbulence are needed to satisfy the R-H equations for the shocks with a Mach number of less than 2. A discussion of the waves, turbulence, and heat flow is given. Fluctuations may considerably affect the time-averaged R-H relations.

Chao, J. K.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Shock waves in the solar system.

Review of the role of gasdynamic processes involving shock waves in the transfer of solar material and energy to the earth and elsewhere in the solar system. The role of shock waves in maintaining the high temperature of the solar corona and in establishing the steady-state solar wind is discussed. An approximate hydromagnetic theory is developed to explain the flow of a supersonic solar wind past planets and the moon. Data concerning the passage of interplanetary shock waves and the ability of a solar flare to produce such a wave are reviewed, and some terrestrial consequences of solar activity are cited.

Spreiter, J. R.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Present developments in theory of the solar wind

Current problems and developments in the theory of the large-scale expansion of the solar corona are reviewed. The outstanding question is whether the energy supply to the quiet corona is mainly thermal conduction outward from a region of active heating at its base, or mainly wave propagation outward from the base. It is suggested that the question can be settled only when the properties of the wind can be sampled over a wide range of radial distance from the sun, from far inside the orbit of earth to well beyond. It was suggested that hydromagnetic waves may drive the expansion of the active corona by direct transfer of momentum as well as energy.

Parker, E. N.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Microscale fluctuations in the solar wind

Theoretical constraints on the interpretation of fluctuations (either propagating or stationary) in the interplanetary medium are reviewed, with emphasis on the important differences between the properties of hydromagnetic waves (and stationary structures) in collisionless and in collision-dominated plasmas, and on the possible roles of Landau damping and nonlinear effects in determining the interplanetary fluctuation spectrum. Hypotheses about the origins of the fluctuations and their influence on the large-scale properties of the solar wind are reviewed.

Barnes, A. A., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1972

Trapped particles at a magnetic discontinuity

At a tangential discontinuity between two constant magnetic fields a layer of trapped particles can exist, this work examines the conditions under which the current carried by such particles tends to maintain the discontinuity. Three cases are examined. If the discontinuity separates aligned vacuum fields, the only requirement is that they be antiparallel. With arbitrary relative orientations, the field must have equal intensities on both sides. Finally, with a guiding center plasma on both sides, the condition reduces to a relation which is also derivable from hydromagnetic theory. Arguments are presented for the occurrence of such trapped modes in the magnetopause and for the non-existence of specular particle reflection.

Stern, D. P.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Alfven wave refraction by interplanetary inhomogeneities

Pioneer 6 magnetic data reveals that the propagation direction of Alfven waves in the interplanetary medium is strongly oriented along the ambient field. Magnetic fluctuations of frequencies up to 1/30 sec in the spacecraft frame are shown to satisfy a necessary condition for Alfven wave normal. It appears from this analysis that geometrical hydromagnetics may satisfactorily describe deviation of the wave normal from the background field. The rotational discontinuity is likely also to propagate along the field lines.

Daily, W. D.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Alfven wave refraction by interplanetary inhomogeneities.

Pioneer 6 magnetic data reveal that the propagation direction of Alfven waves in the interplanetary medium is strongly oriented along the ambient field. Magnetic fluctuations of frequencies up to 1/30 sec in the spacecraft frame are shown to satisfy a necessary condition for Alfven waves, and a variance matrix analysis is used to determine the Alfven wave normal. It appears from this analysis that geometrical hydromagnetics may satisfactorily describe deviation of the wave normal from the background field. The rotational discontinuity is likely also to propagate along the field lines.

Daily, W. D.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Structure and evolutionary history of the solar system. III.

Analysis of the plasma processes and the hydromagnetic aspects involved in the evolution of the solar system. In order to reduce the speculative element as far as possible, the present analysis tries to connect the cosmogonic processes as directly as possible to laboratory plasma physics and to space phenomena actually observed today. Models of the Laplacian type have been made obsolete by magnetohydrodynamics. Furthermore they are in conflict with observations. A new model is suggested. A plasma surrounding a rotating central body may attain a state of partial corotation which is determined by the balance between gravitation and the centrifugal force acting on a plasma in a dipole field. Condensation from a partially corotating plasma results in grains orbiting in ellipses with e = 1/3 and finally accreting to bodies at 2/3 of the central distance of the point of condensation. An application of the theory of the Saturnian rings and to the asteroidal belt shows that the fall-down ratio 2/3 (derived from the geometry of a dipole field) is essential for the understanding of their structure. The structure of the groups of planets and satellites is also discussed, but only in a preliminary way.

Alfven, H.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Night side electromagnetic response of the moon.

The inductive response of the moon to interplanetary magnetic field fluctuations has been measured by the Apollo 12 lunar surface magnetometer. The dependence of the night side lunar response on frequency in the band from about 0.001 to 0.01 Hz is reported. It is shown that the night side response of the moon is not that of a sphere in vacuum. Instead, hydromagnetic radiation scattered from the moon is strongly confined to the interior of the cavity formed downstream from the moon in the solar wind.

Schubert, G.↗

NASA NTRS1973

Comments on the reconnexion rate of magnetic fields.

The reconnection rate of magnetic fields is crucial in understanding the fields found in turbulent flows in the solar photosphere and in the galaxy, and in flare phenomena. The behavior of magnetic fields in the neighborhood of an X-type neutral point is examined. The treatment is kinematic specifying the velocity field v and constructing solutions to the hydromagnetic equation for B. The calculations demonstrate that the reconnection rate is controlled by the diffusion in the near neighborhood of the neutral point, and is not arbitrarily large, as has been suggested by similarity solutions of the complete field and fluid equations for vanishing diffusion.

Parker, E. N.↗

NASA NTRS1974

Interplanetary shock waves associated with solar flares

The interaction of the earth's magnetic field with the solar wind is discussed with emphasis on the influence of solar flares. The geomagnetic storms are considerered to be the result of the arrival of shock wave generated by solar flares in interplanetary space. Basic processes in the solar atmosphere and interplanetary space, and hydromagnetic disturbances associated with the solar flares are discussed along with observational and theoretical problems of interplanetary shock waves. The origin of interplanetary shock waves is also discussed.

Chao, J. K.↗