ROSES ID: NNH09ZDA001N Selection Year: 2010
Program Element: Focused Science Topic
Principal Investigator: Christina M.S. Cohen
Affiliation(s): California Institute of Technology
Project Member(s):
Mason, Glenn M Co-I JHU / APL
Haggerty, Dennis K Co-I The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboraotry
Nitta, Nariaki V. Co-I Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center
Wiedenbeck, Mark E. Co-I California Institute of Technology
Gomez-Herrero, Raul Collaborator University of Alcalá
Summary:
In the quest to understand the origin of the slow solar wind and the evolution of the accompanying magnetic fields and plasma structure in the inner heliosphere, it is critical to have tools which constrain and validate models as well as provide information regarding the source of magnetic fields. Observations of impulsive solar energetic particle (SEP) events are such a tool. Unlike the large SEP events created by shocks driven by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), these events are not accompanied by large scale changes in the heliospheric magnetic field. Additionally, these small events closely trace out the local magnetic field lines connecting the observer to the source region on the Sun. The fact that impulsive events are often observed within a slow solar wind stream [Kocharov et al., 2008], means that their source region may lie in close proximity to the origin of the slow solar wind. Thus, identifying and studying the source regions of the impulsive SEP events will yield important insights into the origin of the slow wind by providing multiday information on the magnetic connection point of the spacecraft to specific active regions on the Sun.Performance Year | Reference | Investigation Type | Actions |
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1 | Nitta, Nariaki V.; Mason, Glenn M.; Wang, Linghua; C... | not set |