Remote sensing of inner heliospheric plasmas
Abstract
Solar disturbances produce major effects on the corona, the solar wind, the interplanetary medium, and the Earth along with its magnetosphere. New techniques for studying plasma disturbances in the inner heliosphere by remotely sensing them were developed. These techniques use data from the HELIOS spacecraft zodiacal light photometers, the ISEE-3 spacecraft kilometer radio-wave experiment, and a variety of other spacecraft and ground-based instruments. Use of interplanetary scintillation (IPS) data from the Cambridge, England radio telescope was added. The zodiacal-light photometers on board the two HELIOS spacecraft (data coverage from 1974 to 1986) provide the first good information about the heliospheric masses and shapes of propagating disturbances. Metric and kilometric type 2 and type 3 radiation caused by shock waves and fast moving electrons respectively are another way to remotely sense the structures which propagate outward from the Sun. The best kilometric radio-wave sensing of inner heliospheric plasma is available from the ISEE-3 spacecraft, and recently these data were used to obtain crude images of the Earth's magnetosphere. The investigations into the physics of the disturbances sensed by these techniques and the ability to forecast them are underway.
- Publication:
-
California Univ., San Diego Report
- Pub Date:
- December 1992
- Bibcode:
- 1992ucsd.rept.....J
- Keywords:
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- Heliosphere;
- Remote Sensing;
- Solar Activity Effects;
- Space Plasmas;
- Spacecraft Instruments;
- Earth Magnetosphere;
- Photometers;
- Solar Radio Bursts;
- Stellar Mass Ejection;
- Zodiacal Light;
- Solar Physics