• Numerical simulation of superhalo electrons generated by magnetic reconnection in the solar wind source region

    分类: 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间: 2016-05-13

    摘要: Superhalo electrons appear to be continuously present in the interplanetary medium, even during very quiet times, with a power-law spectrum at energies above similar to 2 keV. Here we numerically investigate the generation of superhalo electrons by magnetic reconnection in the solar wind source region, using magnetohydrodynamics and test particle simulations for both single X-line reconnection and multiple X-line reconnection. We find that the direct current electric field, produced in the magnetic reconnection region, can accelerate electrons from an initial thermal energy of T similar to 10(5) K up to hundreds of keV. After acceleration, some of the accelerated electrons, together with the nascent solar wind flow driven by the reconnection, propagate upwards along the newly-opened magnetic field lines into interplanetary space, while the rest move downwards into the lower atmosphere. Similar to the observed superhalo electrons at 1 AU, the flux of upward-traveling accelerated electrons versus energy displays a power-law distribution at similar to 2 - 100 keV, f (E) similar to E-delta, with a delta of similar to 1.5 - 2.4. For single (multiple) X-line reconnection, the spectrum becomes harder (softer) as the anomalous resistivity parameter alpha (uniform resistivity eta) increases. These modeling results suggest that the acceleration in the solar wind source region may contribute to superhalo electrons.

  • NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF FAST-MODE MAGNETOSONIC WAVES EXCITED BY PLASMOID EJECTIONS IN THE SOLAR CORONA

    分类: 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间: 2016-05-12

    摘要: The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory has directly imaged the fast-propagating magnetosonic waves (FMWs) successively propagating outward along coronal magnetic funnels. In this study we perform a numerical investigation of the excitation of FMWs in the interchange reconnection scenario, with footpoint shearing flow being used to energize the system and drive the reconnection. The modeling results show that as a result of magnetic reconnection, the plasma in the current sheet is heated up by Joule dissipation to similar to 10 MK and is ejected rapidly, developing the hot outflows. Meanwhile, the current sheet is torn into plasmoids, which are shot quickly both upward and downward. When the plasmoids reach the outflow regions, they impact and collide with the ambient magnetic field there, which consecutively launches FMWs. The FMWs propagate outward divergently away from the impact regions, with a phase speed of the Alfven speed of similar to 1000 km s(-1). In the k-omega. diagram of the Fourier wave power, the FMWs display a broad frequency distribution with a straight ridge that represents the dispersion relation. With the WKB approximation, at the distance of 15Mm from the wave source region, we estimate the energy flux of FMWs to be E similar to 7.0 x 10(6) erg cm(-2) s(-1), which is similar to 50 times smaller than the energy flux related to the tube-channeled reconnection outflow. These simulation results indicate that energetically and dynamically the outflow is far more important than the waves.

  • A NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF COSMIC-RAY MODULATION NEAR THE HELIOPAUSE

    分类: 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间: 2016-05-12

    摘要: Based on a hybrid galactic cosmic-ray transport model, which incorporated MHD global heliospheric data into Parker's cosmic-ray transport equation, we studied the behavior of the transport of galactic cosmic rays and the corresponding gradients in their flux near the heliopause (HP). We found that, (1) by increasing the ratio of the parallel diffusion coefficient to the perpendicular diffusion coefficient in the interstellar magnetic field of the outer heliosheath, the simulated radial flux near the HP increases as well. As the ratio multiplying factor reached 1010, the radial flux experienced a sudden jump near the HP, similar to what Voyager 1 observed in 2012. (2) The effect of changing the diffusion coefficients' ratio on the radial flux variation depends on the energy of the cosmic rays, the lower the energy, the more pronounced the effect is. (3) The magnitude of the diffusion coefficients also affect the radial flux near the HP, the modulation beyond the HP varies by adjusting the magnitude multiplying factor.