The energy spectrometer for particles (ESP): Instrument description and orbital performance

The ESP detector is functionally described, along with the pertinent orbital and spin properties of the spacecraft that supports it. The phoswiched plastic/BGO scintillators sensor design, electronic implementation, and resulting data types are recounted, and the ground calibration procedures are reported. Several illustrative examples of data are given, including the solar proton event of 29 September 1989, and the nearly periodic episodes of high relativistic electron flux that are associated with solar coronal holes which have been a dominant feature of the space weather over the past few years. 2 refs., 10 figs., 1 tab

Influence of a vacuum region on the stability of a high-beta screw pinch

To ascertain the influence of a vacuum region on the stability of a high-..beta.. screw pinch, the stability properties of two confinement configurations are compared. Both configurations involve diffuse equilibrium profiles and a rigid, perfectly conducting cylindrical shell. In the first problem, perfectly conducting plasma extends to the rigid conducting wall; the plasma is extremely tenuous in the outer region of the pinch, however. In the second case, profiles identical to those of the first problem are chosen for the central portion of the pinch, but the outer tenuous plasma is replaced by a perfectly insulating vacuum region. The two configruations are found to be unstable for the same range of external parameter values; different modes are unstable in the two cases, however. Thus, the presence of a vacuum region does not affect the stability boundary of the pinch, but it does affect the nature of the unstable modes

Finite ion Larmor radius effects and wall effects on m = 1 instabilities

A set of fluid-like equations that simultaneously includes effects due to geometry and finite ion gyroradii is used to examine the stability of a straight, radially diffuse screw pinch in the regime where the poloidal magnetic field is very small compared with the axial magnetic field. It is shown that this pinch may be rendered completely stable through a combination of finite Larmor radius effects and wall effects. Many of the m = 1 modes of the diffuse pinch can be stabilized by finite ion Larmor radius effects, just as all flute modes can be stabilized. Because of the special nature of the m = 1 eigenfunctions, finite ion gyroradius effects are negligible for the kink modes of very large wavelength. This special nature of the eigenfunctions, however, makes these modes good candidates for wall stabilization. The finite Larmor radius stabilization of m = 1 modes of a diffuse pinch is contrary to the conventional wisdom that has evolved from studies of sharp-boundary, skin-current models of the pinch

THE EFFECTS OF THE MAJOR SOLAR STORM OF FEBRUARY 1986 AS SEEN BY ENERGETIC PARTICLE DETECTOR ON THREE NEARLY EQUIDISTANT GEOSYNCHRONOUS SATELLITES

This special issue contains contributed papers presented at the symposium "Solar Terrestrial Events in February-March 1986" (January 19, 1989, Nagoya

Composition and energetics of solar flare particle events measured by satellites, 1989--1991

The Synchronous Orbit Particle Analyzer (SOPA), on board the satellite 1989-046 and others, has detected ions from carbon through nickel at energies from 2 to 50 MeV in the great solar energetic particle events of the current solar cycle. Energetic protons from the same events have been detected by the Charged Particle Analyzer (CPA) on board the satellite 1984-129 and others. We present here a collection of data from these various instruments that includes events of 1989, 1990, and 1991. We demonstrate the association of the events detected by the satellites with solar flares, and examine local solar wind features that in some instances alter the flux. We determine the ionic composition of the events, and compare these compositions among the various events and with those events, and compare these compositions among the various events and with those found in events of previous solar cycles. We obtain time-histories of the energetic particle fluxes, resolved both by ion species and by energy range. These detailed histories are of use, in conjunction with other data, in determining the parameters of the acceleration region