skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: GYROSURFING ACCELERATION OF IONS IN FRONT OF EARTH's QUASI-PARALLEL BOW SHOCK

Abstract

It is well known that shocks in space plasmas can accelerate particles to high energies. However, many details of the shock acceleration mechanism are still unknown. A critical element of shock acceleration is the injection problem; i.e., the presence of the so called seed particle population that is needed for the acceleration to work efficiently. In our case study, we present for the first time observational evidence of gyroresonant surfing acceleration in front of Earth's quasi-parallel bow shock resulting in the appearance of the long-suspected seed particle population. For our analysis, we use simultaneous multi-spacecraft measurements provided by the Cluster spacecraft ion (CIS), magnetic (FGM), and electric field and wave instrument (EFW) during a time period of large inter-spacecraft separation distance. The spacecraft were moving toward the bow shock and were situated in the foreshock region. The results show that the gyroresonance surfing acceleration takes place as a consequence of interaction between circularly polarized monochromatic (or quasi-monochromatic) transversal electromagnetic plasma waves and short large amplitude magnetic structures (SLAMSs). The magnetic mirror force of the SLAMS provides the resonant conditions for the ions trapped by the waves and results in the acceleration of ions. Since wave packets with circular polarization andmore » different kinds of magnetic structures are very commonly observed in front of Earth's quasi-parallel bow shock, the gyroresonant surfing acceleration proves to be an important particle injection mechanism. We also show that seed ions are accelerated directly from the solar wind ion population.« less

Authors:
; ;  [1]; ;  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Geodetic and Geophysical Institute, Sopron (Hungary)
  2. LPC2E/CNRS, F-45071 Orleans (France)
  3. Swedish Institute of Space Physics, SE- 751 21 Uppsala (Sweden)
  4. CESR, F-31028 Toulouse (France)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22140247
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Astrophysical Journal
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 771; Journal Issue: 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; ACCELERATION; AMPLITUDES; DISTANCE; ELECTRIC FIELDS; FORESHOCKS; INTERACTIONS; IONS; MAGNETIC MIRRORS; MONOCHROMATIC RADIATION; PLASMA WAVES; POLARIZATION; SHOCK WAVES; SOLAR WIND; SUPERNOVAE; TRAPPING; WAVE PACKETS

Citation Formats

Kis, Arpad, Lemperger, Istvan, Wesztergom, Viktor, Agapitov, Oleksiy, Krasnoselskikh, Vladimir, Khotyaintsev, Yuri V., and Dandouras, Iannis. GYROSURFING ACCELERATION OF IONS IN FRONT OF EARTH's QUASI-PARALLEL BOW SHOCK. United States: N. p., 2013. Web. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/771/1/4.
Kis, Arpad, Lemperger, Istvan, Wesztergom, Viktor, Agapitov, Oleksiy, Krasnoselskikh, Vladimir, Khotyaintsev, Yuri V., & Dandouras, Iannis. GYROSURFING ACCELERATION OF IONS IN FRONT OF EARTH's QUASI-PARALLEL BOW SHOCK. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/771/1/4
Kis, Arpad, Lemperger, Istvan, Wesztergom, Viktor, Agapitov, Oleksiy, Krasnoselskikh, Vladimir, Khotyaintsev, Yuri V., and Dandouras, Iannis. 2013. "GYROSURFING ACCELERATION OF IONS IN FRONT OF EARTH's QUASI-PARALLEL BOW SHOCK". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/771/1/4.
@article{osti_22140247,
title = {GYROSURFING ACCELERATION OF IONS IN FRONT OF EARTH's QUASI-PARALLEL BOW SHOCK},
author = {Kis, Arpad and Lemperger, Istvan and Wesztergom, Viktor and Agapitov, Oleksiy and Krasnoselskikh, Vladimir and Khotyaintsev, Yuri V. and Dandouras, Iannis},
abstractNote = {It is well known that shocks in space plasmas can accelerate particles to high energies. However, many details of the shock acceleration mechanism are still unknown. A critical element of shock acceleration is the injection problem; i.e., the presence of the so called seed particle population that is needed for the acceleration to work efficiently. In our case study, we present for the first time observational evidence of gyroresonant surfing acceleration in front of Earth's quasi-parallel bow shock resulting in the appearance of the long-suspected seed particle population. For our analysis, we use simultaneous multi-spacecraft measurements provided by the Cluster spacecraft ion (CIS), magnetic (FGM), and electric field and wave instrument (EFW) during a time period of large inter-spacecraft separation distance. The spacecraft were moving toward the bow shock and were situated in the foreshock region. The results show that the gyroresonance surfing acceleration takes place as a consequence of interaction between circularly polarized monochromatic (or quasi-monochromatic) transversal electromagnetic plasma waves and short large amplitude magnetic structures (SLAMSs). The magnetic mirror force of the SLAMS provides the resonant conditions for the ions trapped by the waves and results in the acceleration of ions. Since wave packets with circular polarization and different kinds of magnetic structures are very commonly observed in front of Earth's quasi-parallel bow shock, the gyroresonant surfing acceleration proves to be an important particle injection mechanism. We also show that seed ions are accelerated directly from the solar wind ion population.},
doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/771/1/4},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22140247}, journal = {Astrophysical Journal},
issn = {0004-637X},
number = 1,
volume = 771,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013},
month = {Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013}
}