Fast acceleration of ions at quasi-perpendicular shocks

Journal Article · Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/91JA01261· OSTI ID:5256743

Balogh, A ^[1]; Erdos, G ^[2]

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1. Imperial College, London (England)
2. Central Research Inst. for Physics, Budapest (Hungary)

Acceleration of low-energy protons by quasi-perpendicular shocks is investigated. The pitch angle distribution of ions in the energy range 35 keV to 1 MeV has been determined across the interplanetary shock that passed through the ISEE 3 spacecraft on November 30, 1979. Upstream of the shock a bidirectional angular distribution was observed. It is suggested that multiple crossings of the field line with the surface of the shock, forming a magnetic bottle, may account for such an unusual angular distribution. The shock event was modeled by integrating particle trajectories numerically. Qualitative agreement between observations and simulations supports the idea of magnetic bottle field line formation. A detailed numerical study of particle acceleration has shown that in the bottle topology the particle flux is enhanced close to the shock front, contrary to the original scatter-free model, i.e., assuming homogeneous magnetic fields on both sides of the shock. It is suggested that multiple crossings of the field line with the shock may explain shock spike events.

• OSTI ID: 5256743
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Vol. 96:A9; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
INTERPLANETARY SPACE
SHOCK WAVES
PROTONS
ACCELERATION
ANGULAR DISTRIBUTION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DISTRIBUTION
INTERPLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELDS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
SATELLITES
TOPOLOGY
BARYONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EVALUATION
FERMIONS
HADRONS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MATHEMATICS
NUCLEONS
SPACE
640107* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Planetary Phenomena