Coordinated Observations of Energetic Particles from 3He-rich Events by STEREO and ACE
Abstract
The two STEREOs, together with ACE and other near-Earth spacecraft, have produced data sets that are well suited for investigating how 3He-rich energetic particles that are accelerated in reconnection events on the Sun get distributed in heliographic longitude. Our earlier study[1] of one such 3He-rich event (7 February 2010), which was detected at ACE and both STEREOs when they spanned 136o, showed that accelerated particles can be distributed over a wide range of longitudes even when they originate from a localized solar source. In addition, the particle fluences were found to decrease strongly with increasing distance from the longitude having the best magnetic connection to the source region. Based on data from the first four years of the STEREO mission, when solar activity was very low, we have used additional 3He-rich events detected by one or both of the STEREO/LET instruments and, in some cases also by ACE/ULEIS and/or SIS, to investigate the conditions under which the accelerated particles can gain access to a wide range of heliographic longitudes and to determine the longitudinal dependences of particle fluences in such events. During 2011 and 2012, when the level of solar activity has been significantly greater than in the preceding four years, unambiguous association of events detected at different spacecraft has been hampered by the possibility of chance coincidences between detections of particles from separate solar events as well as by the increased energetic particle background levels. We have investigated the possibility that event characteristics such as composition can be use to confirm that some events detected at widely spaced locations are associated with the same injection at the Sun. Such associations have the potential to extend the longitude range over which 3He-rich events can be studied and also to investigate the solar-cycle dependence of longitudinal spreading. We will report results from the statistical study of events that occurred between January 2007 and January 2011 and discuss selected event associations that have made over the subsequent two years. [Ref 1. Wiedenbeck et al. 2012, ApJ, in press]
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFMSH24A..01W
- Keywords:
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- 2114 INTERPLANETARY PHYSICS / Energetic particles;
- 7514 SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMY / Energetic particles;
- 7519 SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMY / Flares