Energetic Particles near the Sun from Parker Solar Probe
Abstract
NASA's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission recently plunged through the inner heliosphere to perihelia at ~24 million km (~35 solar radii), much closer to the Sun than any prior human made object. Onboard PSP, the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISʘIS) instrument suite made groundbreaking measurements of solar energetic particles (SEPs). Here we provide an overview of the near-Sun energetic particle radiation environment over PSP's first five orbits, which reveal where and how energetic particles are energized and transported. We find a great variety of energetic particle events accelerated both locally and remotely. We summarize recent breakthroughs by the ISʘIS team concerning co-rotating interaction regions (CIRs), "impulsive" SEP events driven by acceleration near the Sun, events related to Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), and the sources of energetic particle variability including effects likely associated with magnetic reconnection, and variations in the magnetic field of the Sun and inner heliosphere. We discuss the effects of the anomalous magnetic field structure within CIRs and patchy energetic particle distributions near current sheets and magnetic discontinuities. These ISʘIS observations made so close to the Sun provide critical information for investigating the near-Sun transport and energization of solar energetic particles that was difficult to resolve from prior observations. The wide-ranging ISʘIS studies summarized here mark another major milestone with humanity's reconnaissance of the near-Sun environment and provide direct observations of the energetic particle radiation environment in the region just above the sub-Alfvenic corona.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMSH054..02S
- Keywords:
-
- 7509 Corona;
- SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMY;
- 7827 Kinetic and MHD theory;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS;
- 7863 Turbulence;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS;
- 7867 Wave/particle interactions;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS