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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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NASA NTRS1992

Solar-generated disturbances in the heliosphere

It has long been known that disturbances can propagate from Sun to Earth with periods of a few days following large solar flares. Other disturbances re-occur with the solar rotation rate implying that they are more or less stably generated by a specific region on the solar surface. At the Sun some of these disturbances are readily observed in coronagraphs and against the solar disk. Several techniques have been used to remotely detect and follow different disturbances in the interplanetary medium as they propagate outward from the Sun. These techniques include interplanetary scintillation, kilometric radio and Helios photometer observations. In situ, spacecraft can mark the passage of disturbances by direct measurement along the column convected past the observation point. As probes of the heliospheric magnetic field and disturbances in themselves, particles above the energy of the thermal plasma traverse the heliosphere and indicate the extent of its structures. Both the basic physics, as well as the spatial and temporal evolution of disturbances, can be confused as they propagate through the interplanetary medium largely because of the data coverage limitations. However, as their basic physics becomes better known through more complete observations and theory, the extent and accuracy of these disturbances can be better described.

Jackson, B. V.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Proton and electron mean free paths: The Palmer consensus revisited

We present experimental and theoretical evidence suggesting that the mean free path of cosmic-ray electrons and protons may be fundamentally different at low to intermediate (less than 50 MV) rigidities. The experimental evidence is from Helios observations of solar energetic particles, which show that the mean free path of 1.4 MV electrons is often similar to that of 187 MV protons, even though proton mean free paths continue to decrease comparatively rapidly with decreasing rigidty down to the lowest channels (about 100 MV) observed. The theoretical evidence is from computations of particle scattering in dynamical magnetic turbulence, which predict that electrons will have a larger mean free path than protons of the same rigidity. In the light of these new results, 'consensus' ideas about cosmic-ray mean free paths may require drastic revision.

Bieber, John W.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Cosmic ray decreases and shock structure: A multispacecraft study

We examine greater than 60-MeV/amu ion data from three spacecraft (IMP 8 and Helios 1 and 2) at the time of a number of short term (less than 20-day duration) cosmic ray decreases (greater than 1 GeV) detected by ground-based neutron monitors in the years 1976 to 1979. The multispacecraft data allow us to investigate the structure of the modulation region and in particular the relative importance, as a function of location, of the shock and shock driver (ejecta) in causing the reduction in particle densities. Although the shocks contributing to cosmic ray decrease often have particle enhancements associated with them in the greater than 60-meV/amu data, this is not the case for three of the events discussed in this paper where a shock-associated decrease is also evident. Whereas the shock can cause an increase or decrease at low (i.e., less than neutron monitor) energies, the reduction of particle densities in the driver, if it is intercepted, is usually evident at all energies. Thus the overall shape of a decrease at greater than 60 MeV/amu depends primarily on whether the ejecta is intercepted. We find that the particle density inside ejecta increases with increasing radical distance from the Sun. In many of the events in this study, entry and exit of ejecta are accompanied by abrupt changes in the decrease and recovery rates which indicate that the effect of the ejecta is local. In contrast, the effect of the shock lasts many days after the shock has passed by and is evident at large angular distances from the longitude of the solar source, i.e., the effect of the shock is nonlocal. Within 1 AU there seems to be no radial dependence of the shock effect. One cosmic ray decrease seen at Earth, which had an unusual profile, can be understood if the median plane of the ejecta was inclined to the ecliptic.

Cane, H. V.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The participation of nuclei in type-III-related electron streams

We study 27 increases of the flux of 300-800 keV electrons on board HELIOS A or B, associated with intense type III radio bursts close to perihelion passages of the two spacecraft, during the solar minimum. Electrons can be detected inside cones with an angular width between 30 deg and 60 deg. Though only intense type III bursts are associated with recognizable electron events in space, such an association does not exist for all of them; this fact and great differences in fluxes of the individual events indicate that, apart from the intensity, also some other characteristic of the type III burst acceleration or propagation process determines the resulting flux of electrons in space; the energy spectrum of the accelerated electrons is one of the likely candidates. A comparison of the electron flux in these events with the flux of 1.7-3.7 MeV/nucl helium reveals very large variations of the helium/electron flux ratio, by a factor of at least 15 and possibly much higher. We demonstrate that these variations are not caused by propagation effects in interplanetary space. Therefore, they must be due either to propagation effects in the solar corona, or more likely, to intrinsic variations in the relative production of electrons and nuclei in the type III burst process. An extrapolation of the observed fluxes to 1 AU shows that in only 7 of the 27 electron events studied might a marginal greater than 1.7 MeV helium flux be recognized at the Earth distance.

Kallenrode, May-Britt↗
NASA NTRS1995

Ulysses magnetic field observations of fluctuations within polar coronal flows

The Ulysses spacecraft has gathered data from within flows from the Sun's southern polar coronal hole, the first in situ measurement of this region. We present a brief analysis of the heliospheric magnetic field data from this region, using a fractal method. As is the case near the ecliptic, estimated spectral exponents are near 5/3 on spacecraft scales of seconds to minutes. On longer time scales, however, there appears to be a significantly different population in polar flows, which is similar to that found by the Helios spacecraft in fast solar wind flows at 0.3 AU.

Horbury, T.↗
NASA NTRS1995

The microscopic state of the solar wind: Links between composition, velocity distributions, waves and turbulence

An overview is given of the microscopic state of the solar wind with emphasis on recent Ulysses high-latitude observations and previous Helios in-ecliptic observations. The possible links between composition, ionization state. velocity distribution functions of electrons, protons and heavy ions. kinetic plasma waves and MHD-scale turbulence are elaborated. Emphasis is placed on a connection of interplanetary kinetic-scale phenomena with their generating microscopic processes in the corona. The fast streams seem to consist of mesoscale pressure-balanced plasma filaments and magnetic flux tubes, reminiscent of the supergranular-size structures building the open corona, from which copious Alfven waves emanate. The wind from the magnetically structured and active corona shows developed compressive turbulence and considerable abundance and ionization state variations. Some modelling attempts to explain the observed element fractionation are briefly reviewed. The causes of the nonthermal particle features. such as proton-ion differential streaming, ion beams. temperature anisotropies, and skewed distributions associated with collisionless heat conduction, are ultimately to be searched in the fact, that the corona is never quiescent but fundamentally variable in space and time. Consequently, the radial evolution of the internal state of the wind resembles at all latitudes a complicated relaxation process, in the course of which the free (in comparison with LTE conditions) particle kinetic energy is converted into plasma waves and MHD turbulence on a wide range of scales. This leads to intermittent wave-particle interactions and unsteady anomalous transport, mixed with the weak effects of the rare Coulomb collisions. Spherical expansion and large-scale inhomogeneity forces the wind to attain microscopically a complex internal state of dynamic statistical equilibrium.

Marsch, E.↗
NASA NTRS1995

On the origin of 1/f spectrum of magnetic fluctuations in the solar wind

Spacecraft measurements show that the spectrum of magnetic fluctuations in the solar wind can be divided into low- and high frequency parts. The low and high frequency parts are approximately self-similar (follow a power-law) but with different spectral exponents. (There is, in addition, a very low frequency range in which the spectrum is dominated by structures coming directly from the Sun and it is not self-similar.) For the wind coming from the south polar hole the boundary between the low- and high frequency parts is at about 1 hour near 1 AU. The observed exponent of the low-frequency part is approximately -1 . The high frequency spectrum is steeper with an exponent of about -5/3 . The high frequency spectrum is commonly believed to be the result of non-linear interactions of magnetic and velocity perturbations which lead to a turbulent cascade. However, for the low frequency fluctuations, the site of origin (on the Sun, in the solar corona or in the solar wind?) and mechanism of generation remain basically unknown. In this paper we consider the origin of the 1/f spectrum. The analysis of Ulysses data is compared with analysis of Helios data and the results are used to confront possible models of origin of the spectrum.

Ruzmaikin, A.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Energy spectrum transfer equations of solar wind turbulence

The recent studies of transfer equations for solar wind magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence are reviewed with emphasis on the comparison with the statistical observational results. Helios and Voyager missions provide an opportunity to study the the radial evolution of the power spectrum. the cross-helicity the Alfven ratio and the minimum variance direction. Spectrum transfer equations are considered as a tool to explore the nature of this radial evolution of the fluctuations. The transfer equations are derived from incompressible MHD equations. Generally one needs to make assumptions about the nature of the fluctuations and the nature of the turbulent non-linear interactions to obtain numerical results which can be compared with the observations. Some special model results for several simple cases SUCH as for structures or strong mixing. for Alfven waves with weak turbulent interactions. and for a superposition of structures and Alfven waves. are discussed. The difference between the various approaches to derive and handle the transfer equations are also addressed. Finally some theoretical description of the compressible fluctuations are also briefly reviewed.

Tu, C.-Y.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Radio interferometer measurements of turbulence in the inner solar wind

Measurements can be made of Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) phase scintillations due to plasma turbulence in the solar corona and solar wind. These measurements provide information on the spectrum and intensity of density fluctuations with scale sizes of a few hundred to several thousand kilometers. If we model the spatial power spectrum of the density fluctuations as P(sub delta n)(q) = C(sup 2)(sub N) q(sup -alpha), where q is the spatial wavenumber, these observations yield both alpha and the path-integrated value of C(sup 2)(sub N). The recently completed Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) is capable of making such measurements over the heliocentric distance range from a few solar radii to 60 solar radii and beyond. This permits the determination with the same technique and instrument of the radial evolution of turbulent characteristics, as well as their dependence on solar wind transients, sector structure, etc. In this paper we present measurements of 13 sources observed at a wide range of solar elongations, and at different times. These observations show that the coefficient C(sup 2(sub N), depends on heliocentric distance as approximately C(sup 2)(sub N) varies as (R/Solar Radius)(sup -3.7). The radio derived power spectral characteristics are in agreement with in situ measurements by the Helios spacecraft for regions of slow solar wind, but fast solar wind does not have large enough density fluctuations to account for the magnitude of the observed scintillations. The observed radial dependence is consistent with a WKB-type evolution of the turbulence with heliocentric distance. Our data also show indication of turbulence enhancement associated with solar wind transients.

Spangler, S. R.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Energetic particles as probes of solar wind disturbances

We have investigated the response of particles, in the energy range approximately 1-5000 MeV, to interplanetary shocks and coronal ejecta. Shocks can accelerate particles or cause decreases in particle densities. Ejecta cause decreases. Thus particle observations can provide information about solar wind disturbances. Of particular interest is that the boundaries of ejecta can often be more readily identified from approximately l GeV particle decrease observations than from most other phenomena associated with ejecta. We will discuss the properties of less energetic shocks and ejecta and compare them with those of the more energetic events which are normally discussed in the context of Forbush decreases, large proton events, etc. We use data from both Helios spacecraft and IMP 8 which allows some spatial variations to be studied.

Cane, H. V.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Solar wind/local interstellar medium interaction including charge exchange with neural hydrogen

We present results from a hydrodynamic model of the interaction of the solar wind with the local interstellar medium (LISM), self-consistently taking into account the effects of charge exchange between the plasma component and the interstellar neutrals. The simulation is fully time dependent, and is carried out in two or three dimensions, depending on whether the helio-latitudinal dependence of the solar wind speed and number density (both giving rise to three dimensional effects) are included. As a first approximation it is assumed that the neutral component of the flow can be described by a single, isotropic fluid. Clearly, this is not the actual situation, since charge exchange with the supersonic solar wind plasma in the region of the nose results in a 'second' neutral fluid propagating in the opposite direction as that of the LISM neutrals.

Pauls, H. Louis↗
NASA NTRS1995

Dominant 2D magnetic turbulence in the solar wind

There have been recent suggestions that solar wind magnetic turbulence may be a composite of slab geometry (wavevector aligned with the mean magnetic field) and 2D geometry (wavevectors perpendicular to the mean field). We report results of two new tests of this hypothesis using Helios measurements of inertial ranged magnetic spectra in the solar wind. The first test is based upon a characteristic difference between perpendicular and parallel reduced power spectra which is expected for the 2D component but not for the slab component. The second test examines the dependence of power spectrum density upon the magnetic field angle (i.e., the angle between the mean magnetic field and the radial direction), a relationship which is expected to be in opposite directions for the slab and 2D components. Both tests support the presence of a dominant (approximately 85 percent by energy) 2D component in solar wind magnetic turbulence.

Bieber, John W.↗
NASA NTRS1995

An extended structure-function model and its application to the analysis of solar wind intermittency

An extended structure-function model is developed by including the new effect in the p-model of Meneveau and Sreenivasan (1987a), i.e., that the averaged energy cascade rate changes with scale, a situation which has been found to prevail in non-fully-developed turbulence in the inner solar wind. This model is useful for the small-scale fluctuations in the inner heliosphere, where the turbulence is not fully developed and cannot be explained quantitatively by any of the previous intermittency turbulence models. With two model parameters, the intrinsic index of the energy spectrum, alpha and the fragmentation fraction p, the model can fit, for the first time, all the observed scaling exponents of the structure functions, which are calculated for time lags ranging from 81 seconds to 0.7 hours from the Helios solar wind data. From the cases we studied we can establish for p neither a clear radial evolution trend, nor a solar-wind-speed, or stream-structure dependence, or a systematic anisotropy for both the flow velocity and magnetic field component fluctuations. Generally, p has values between 0. 7 and 0.8. However, in some cases in low-speed wind p has somewhat higher values for the magnetic components, especially for the radial component. In high-speed wind, the inferred intrinsic spectral indices (alpha) of the velocity and magnetic field components are about equal, while the experimental spectral indices derived from the observed power spectra differ. The magnetic index is somewhat larger than the index of the velocity spectrum. For magnetic fluctuations in both high- and low-speed winds, the intrinsic exponent alpha has values which are near 1.5, while the observed spectral exponent has much higher values.

Tu, C.-Y.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Search for fine scale structures in high latitude solar wind

About 25 years ago, E. Parker suggested that, as a consequence of the inhomogeneous structure of the corona, the solar wind might consist of adjacent structures with different physical conditions. Since that suggestion was made, the solar wind plasma characteristics have been measured in situ through many experiments, but little has been done to check whether the solar wind shows any evidence for fine scale structures, and, in the affirmative, how far from the Sun these structures persist. A previous work on this subject, by Thieme, Marsch and Schwenn (1990), based on Helios data, lead these authors to claim that the solar wind, between 0.3 and 1 AU, is inhomogeneous on a scale consistent with the hypothesis that the plume-interplume plasmas, at those distances, still retain their identity. In this work we present preliminary results from an investigation of the solar wind fine structure from Ulysses high latitude observations. To this end, we have analyzed data over several months, during 1994, at times well after Ulysses's last encounter with the Heliospheric Current Sheet, when the spacecraft was at latitudes above 50 degrees. These data refer to high speed wind coming from southern polar coronal holes and are best suited for plume-interplume identification. We have performed a power spectra analysis of typical plasma parameters, to test whether the wind plasma consist of two distinct plasma populations. We also examined data to check whether there is any evidence for an horizontal pressure balance over the hypothesized distinct structures. Our results are discussed and compared with previous findings.

Livi, S.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Radial gradients of ion densities and temperatures observed by SWICS/Ulysses

Mean density and temperature gradients of solar wind protons and alpha-particles between 1 and 5.4 AU are established from SWICS/Ulysses observations. All parameters are classified in speed intervals. au order scheme giving us a natural extension of the Helios observations. which were usually classified according to speed of the wind. The radial gradients show a similar behaviour of both particle species, while the particles radially propagate and thereby cool off in the heliosphere. The slow solar wind is found, for protons as well as a particles. to expand adiabatically all the way out to 5.4 AU, while the fast wind evolves non-adiabatically and is heated by interplanetary sources. It, seems that the heating rate of the a-particles is larger than the heating rate of the protons. The ion temperature ratio and density ratio are determined. They do not indicate any radial dependence. The temperature ratio T(sub alpha)/T(sub p) is on average about 4. It has a maximum of 4.5 in the velocity interval where 400 km/s is less than v(sub p) is less than 500 km/s, while in slow wind with v(sub p) is less than 400 km/s it has a minimum value of 37. and for fast wind with v(sub p) is greater than 500 km/s it is 3.9. The density gradients shows compression effects resulting from fast wind overtaking the slow wind.

Liu, S.↗
NASA NTRS1995

The Solar Mass Ejection Imager

We are designing a Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) capable of observing the Thomson-scattered signal from transient density features in the heliosphere from a spacecraft situated near AU. The imager is designed to trace these features, which include coronal mass ejections. corotating structures and shock waves, to elongations greater than 90 deg from the Sun. The instrument may be regarded as a progeny of the heliospheric imaging capability shown possible by the zodiacal-light photometers of the HELIOS spacecraft. The instrument we are designing would make more effective use of in-situ solar wind data from spacecraft in the vicinity of the imager by extending these observations to the surrounding environment. The observations from the instrument should allow deconvolution of these structures from the perspective views obtained as they pass the spacecraft. An imager at Earth could allow up to three days warning of the arrival of a mass ejection from the Sun .

Jackson, B. V.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Regions of abnormally low proton temperature as signatures of ejecta: Solar cycle dependence and association with other ejecta signatures

Solar wind proton temperatures lower than expected for 'normal' solar wind expansion are a common signature of 'ejecta' (i.e. interplanetary coronal mass ejections). We have surveyed the OMNI solar wind data base for 1965-1991, and Helios data for 1974-1980, to identify regions of abnormally low temperatures. Their occurrence rate is clearly dependent on solar activity levels, in particular when the minority of events associated with encounters with the heliospheric plasma sheet are excluded. The analysis of the OMNI data may provide an indication of the rate of ejecta at the Earth, and hence of the CME rate, extending back to before spacecraft coronagraph observations became available in the early 1970's. We discuss the association of these solar wind structures with cosmic ray depressions bidirectional particle flows, and other ejecta signatures. Our impression is that no one ejecta signature provides a truly comprehensive indication of the presence of ejecta, but that abnormally low temperature depressions encompass most of the regions identified by these other individual signatures.

Richardson, I. G.↗