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1. Simulation of the Solar Energetic Particle Event on 2020 May 29 Observed by Parker Solar Probe

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acac21  

   Cheng, Lei ; Zhang, Ming ; Lario, David ; Balmaceda, Laura A. ; Kwon, Ryun Young ; Cohen, Christina ( February 2023 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   This paper presents a stochastic three-dimensional focused transport simulation of solar energetic particles (SEPs) produced by a data-driven coronal mass ejection (CME) shock propagating through a data-driven model of coronal and heliospheric magnetic fields. The injection of SEPs at the CME shock is treated using diffusive shock acceleration of post-shock suprathermal solar wind ions. A time-backward stochastic simulation is employed to solve the transport equation to obtain the SEP time–intensity profile at any location, energy, and pitch angle. The model is applied to a SEP event on 2020 May 29, observed by STEREO-A close to ∼1 au and by Parker Solar Probe (PSP) when it was about 0.33 au away from the Sun. The SEP event was associated with a very slow CME with a plane-of-sky speed of 337 km s⁻¹at a height below 6R_Sas reported in the SOHO/LASCO CME catalog. We compute the time profiles of particle flux at PSP and STEREO-A locations, and estimate both the spectral index of the proton energy spectrum for energies between ∼2 and 16 MeV and the equivalent path length of the magnetic field lines experienced by the first arriving SEPs. We find that the simulation results are well correlated with observations. The SEP event could be explained by the acceleration of particles by a weak CME shock in the low solar corona that is not magnetically connected to the observers.

    

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2. In Situ Observations of Interstellar Pickup Ions from 1 au to the Outer Heliosphere

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-022-00895-2  

   Zirnstein, E. J. ; Möbius, E. ; Zhang, M. ; Bower, J. ; Elliott, H. A. ; McComas, D. J. ; Pogorelov, N. V. ; Swaczyna, P. ( June 2022 , Space Science Reviews)

   Abstract Interstellar pickup ions are an ubiquitous and thermodynamically important component of the solar wind plasma in the heliosphere. These PUIs are born from the ionization of the interstellar neutral gas, consisting of hydrogen, helium, and trace amounts of heavier elements, in the solar wind as the heliosphere moves through the local interstellar medium. As cold interstellar neutral atoms become ionized, they form an energetic ring beam distribution comoving with the solar wind. Subsequent scattering in pitch angle by intrinsic and self-generated turbulence and their advection with the radially expanding solar wind leads to the formation of a filled-shell PUI distribution, whose density and pressure relative to the thermal solar wind ions grows with distance from the Sun. This paper reviews the history of in situ measurements of interstellar PUIs in the heliosphere. Starting with the first detection in the 1980s, interstellar PUIs were identified by their highly nonthermal distribution with a cutoff at twice the solar wind speed. Measurements of the PUI distribution shell cutoff and the He focusing cone, a downwind region of increased density formed by the solar gravity, have helped characterize the properties of the interstellar gas from near-Earth vantage points. The preferential heating of interstellar PUIs compared to the core solar wind has become evident in the existence of suprathermal PUI tails, the nonadiabatic cooling index of the PUI distribution, and PUIs’ mediation of interplanetary shocks. Unlike the Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft, New Horizon’s Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument is taking the only direct measurements of interstellar PUIs in the outer heliosphere, currently out to $\sim47~\text{au}$ ∼ 47 au from the Sun or halfway to the heliospheric termination shock. 

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3. Phase-factor spectra of turbulent phase screens

   https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.429928  

   Muschinski, Andreas ( August 2021 , Journal of the Optical Society of America A)

   The optical phase$\mathrm{\varphi <\#comment/>}$is a key quantity in the physics of light propagating through a turbulent medium. In certain respects, however, the statistics of the phasefactor,$\mathrm{\psi <\#comment/>}=\exp <\#comment/>(i\mathrm{\varphi <\#comment/>})$, are more relevant than the statistics of the phase itself. Here, we present a theoretical analysis of the 2D phase-factor spectrum$F_{\mathrm{\psi <\#comment/>}}(\mathit{\kappa <\#comment/>})$of a random phase screen. We apply the theory to four types of phase screens, each characterized by a power-law phase structure function,$D_{\mathrm{\varphi <\#comment/>}}(r)=(r/r_c{)}^{\mathrm{\gamma <\#comment/>}}$(where$r_c$is the phase coherence length defined by$D_{\mathrm{\varphi <\#comment/>}}(r_c)=1{\mathrm{r}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{d}}^2$), and a probability density function$p_{\mathrm{\alpha <\#comment/>}}(\mathrm{\alpha <\#comment/>})$of the phase increments for a given spatial lag. We analyze phase screens with turbulent ($\mathrm{\gamma <\#comment/>}=5/3$) and quadratic ($\mathrm{\gamma <\#comment/>}=2$) phase structure functions and with normally distributed (i.e., Gaussian) versus Laplacian phase increments. We find that there is a pronounced bump in each of the four phase-factor spectra$F_{\mathrm{\psi <\#comment/>}}(\mathrm{\kappa <\#comment/>})$. The precise location and shape of the bump are different for the four phase-screen types, but in each case it occurs at$\mathrm{\kappa <\#comment/>}\sim <\#comment/>1/r_c$. The bump is unrelated to the well-known “Hill bump” and is not caused by diffraction effects. It is solely a characteristic of the refractive-index statistics represented by the respective phase screen. We show that the second-order$\mathrm{\psi <\#comment/>}$statistics (covariance function, structure function, and spectrum) characterize a random phase screen more completely than the second-order$\mathrm{\varphi <\#comment/>}$counterparts.

    

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4. In Situ Measurement of the Energy Fraction in Suprathermal and Energetic Particles at ACE, Wind, and PSP Interplanetary Shocks

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac54af  

   David, Liam ; Fraschetti, Federico ; Giacalone, Joe ; Wimmer-Schweingruber, Robert F. ; Berger, Lars ; Lario, David ( March 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   The acceleration of charged particles by interplanetary shocks (IPs) can drain a nonnegligible fraction of the plasma pressure. In this study, we have selected 17 IPs observed in situ at 1 au by the Advanced Composition Explorer and the Wind spacecraft, and 1 shock at 0.8 au observed by Parker Solar Probe. We have calculated the time-dependent partial pressure of suprathermal and energetic particles (smaller and greater than 50 keV for protons and 30 keV for electrons, respectively) in both the upstream and downstream regions. The particle fluxes were averaged for 1 hr before and 1 hr after the shock time to remove short timescale effects. Using the MHD Rankine–Hugoniot jump conditions, we find that the fraction of the total upstream energy flux transferred to suprathermal and energetic downstream particles is typically ≲16%, in agreement with previous observations and simulations. Notably, by accounting for errors on all measured shock parameters, we have found that for any given fast magnetosonic Mach number,M_f< 7, the angle between the shock normal and average upstream magnetic field,θ_Bn, is not correlated with the energetic particle pressure; in particular, the partial pressure of energized particles does not decrease forθ_Bn≳ 45°. The downstream electron-to-proton energy ratio in the range ≳ 140 eV for electrons and ≳ 70 keV for protons exceeds the expected ∼1% and nears equipartition (>0.1) for the Wind events.

    

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5. Nodal Structure of Toroidal Standing Alfvén Waves and Its Implication for Field Line Mass Density Distribution

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JA028981  

   Takahashi, Kazue ; Denton, Richard E. ( May 2021 , Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics)

   We have conducted a statistical study of toroidal mode standing Alfvén waves detected by the Van Allen Probes spacecraft in the dayside inner magnetosphere, with an emphasis on the nodal structure of the fundamental through fifth harmonics. We developed a technique to accurately assign harmonic mode numbers to peaks in the power spectra of the electric (E_ν) and magnetic (B_ϕ) field components of toroidal waves and then determine the spectral intensities ofE_νandB_ϕand the coherence and cross‐phase between these field components for each harmonic. The magnetic latitude (MLAT) dependence of these quantities was statistically examined to determine the location of the nodes. In addition to the equatorial nodes located close to the equator (MLAT = 0), we identified several nodes away from the equator within the MLAT range from −20° to +20°. We found that theE_ν‐B_ϕcross‐phase is very close to ±90° except near the nodes, indicating that the fixed‐end approximation is appropriate in modeling dayside toroidal waves. Noting that the node latitudes depend on the distribution of the mass density (ρ) along the background magnetic field, we inferred the distribution from the nodes observed atL = 4–6. If we adopt a model field line mass density (ρ) distribution of the formρ ∝ (1/r)^α, whereris geocentric distance to the field line andαis a free parameter, the statistically determined node latitudes indicate thatα∼1.5 is appropriate for both the plasmasphere and the plasmatrough.

    

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