Graham, GA;
Rae, IJ;
Owen, CJ;
Walsh, AP;
(2018)
Investigating the Effect of IMF Path Length on Pitch- angle Scattering Strahl within 1 au.
The Astrophysical Journal
, 855
(1)
, Article 40. 10.3847/1538-4357/aaaf1b.
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Abstract
Strahl is the strongly field-aligned, beam-like population of electrons in the solar wind. Strahl width is observed to increase with distance from the Sun, and hence strahl electrons must be subject to in-transit scattering effects. Different energy relations have been both observed and modeled for both strahl width and the width increase with radial distance. Thus, there is much debate regarding what mechanism(s) scatter strahl. In this study, we use a novel method to investigate strahl evolution within 1 au by estimating the distance traveled by the strahl along the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). We do this by implementing methods developed in previous studies, which make use of the onset of solar energetic particles at ∼1 au. Thus, we are able to obtain average strahl broadening in relation to electron energy and distance, while also taking into account the general effect of IMF topology and adiabatic focusing experienced by strahl. We find that average strahl width broadens with distance traveled along the IMF, which suggests that strahl width is related to the path length taken by the strahl from the Sun to 1 au. We also find that strahl pitch-angle width broadening per au along the IMF length increased with strahl energy, which suggests that the dominant strahl pitch-angle scattering mechanism likely has an inherent energy relation. Our pitch-angle broadening results provide a testable energy relation for the upcoming Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter missions, which are both set to provide unprecedented new observations within 1 au.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Investigating the Effect of IMF Path Length on Pitch- angle Scattering Strahl within 1 au |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3847/1538-4357/aaaf1b |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. |
| Keywords: | Physical Sciences, Astronomy & Astrophysics, plasmas, scattering, solar wind, Sun: heliosphere, ELECTRON-DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS, VELOCITY DISTRIBUTION-FUNCTIONS, HELIOSPHERIC MAGNETIC-FIELD, FAST SOLAR-WIND, ULYSSES OBSERVATIONS, ENERGETIC PARTICLES, EVENTS, SPACECRAFT, PLASMA, ACCELERATION |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10046730 |
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