The Propagation of Solar Energetic Particles in Magnetic Channels

The existence of interplanetary flow systems produced by the entrainment of interplanetary transients, consisting of flare produced shocks, high speed solar wind streams and coronal mass ejection, has been established. This entrainment process produces enhanced regions of the interplanetary magnetic field that should be connected back to the solar corona. These compressed regions can provide a preferred magnetic channel for the propagation of solar cosmic rays. The characteristics of these events appear to be different from those previously reported by the NASA/University of New Hampshire team and the University of Chicago in their study of a large number of events in the region beyond 1 AU. These new events have a very flat energy spectra (with gamma = approx. 1.5) that frequently extend to energies above 100 MeV and have a significant enhancement of MeV electrons

The flux and source of energetic protons in Saturn's inner magnetosphere

The flux of energetic protons in Saturn's inner magnetosphere was observed in two channels from 48 to 63 and 63 to 160 MeV. Absorption features due to the G ring and the satellites Enceladus and Mimas were easily identifiable. The flux observed in the absorption slot of Mimas can be maintained by the decay of a cosmic ray albedo neutron flux of 0.007/sq cm/s/sr. This flux is entirely consistent with calculations of the neutron flux produced by galactic cosmic ray interactions with the rings of Saturn. The omnidirectional proton flux of 0.0082/sq cm/s at 2.734 R sub s requires a residence time of 30 years. Both the residence time and the energy spectrum are comparable to those found in the inner radiation belt of the Earth. The angular distribution is nearly isotropic in the Mimas slot and beyond 4R sub s. Otherwise the pitch angle distribution is pancake and is approximated by sin(n)theta with n in the range 2 to 7. This distribution is consistent with an isotropic neutron source in the ring plane

Cosmic ray modulation and merged interaction regions

Beyond several AU, interactions among shocks and streams give rise to merged interaction regions in which the magnetic field is turbulent. The integral intensity of . 75 MeV/Nuc cosmic rays at Voyager is generally observed to decrease when a merged interaction region moves past the spacecraft and to increase during the passage of a rarefaction region. When the separation between interaction regions is relatively large, the cosmic ray intensity tends to increase on a scale of a few months. This was the case at Voyager 1 from July 1, 1983 to May 1, 1984, when the spacecraft moved from 16.7 to 19.6 AU. Changes in cosmic ray intensity were related to the magnetic field strength in a simple way. It is estimated that the diffusion coefficient in merged interaction regions at this distance is similar to 0.6 x 10 to the 22nd power sq cm/s

Acceleration of protons at 32 Jovian radii in the outer magnetosphere of jupiter

During the inbound pass of Pioneer 10, a rapid ten-fold increase of the 0.2 to MeV proton flux was observed at 32 Jovian radii (R sub J). The total event lasted for 30 minutes and was made up of a number of superimposed individual events. At the time, the spacecraft was in the outer magnetosphere about 7 R sub J below the magnetic equator. Before and after the event, the proton flux was characteristic of the low flux level normally encountered between crossings of the magnetic equator. Flux changes at different energies were coherent within 1 minute; a time comparable to the time resolution of the data. The angular distributions were highly anisotropic with protons streaming towards Jupiter. A field-aligned dumbbell distribution was observed initially, and a pancake distribution just before the flux decayed to its pre-event value. The alpha particle flux changed as rapidly as the proton flux but peaked at different times. The energetic electron flux behaved differently; it increased gradually throughout the period

A catalogue of solar cosmic ray events: IMPS 4 and 5, May 1967 - December 1972

This catalogue of solar cosmic ray events has been prepared for the use of solar physicists and other interested scientists. It contains some 185 solar particle events detected by the Goddard Space Flight Center Cosmic Ray Experiments on IMP's IV and V (Explorer 34 and 41) for the period May 1967 - December 1972. The data is presented in the form of hourly averages for three proton energy intervals - 0.9 - 1.6 MeV; 6 - 20 MeV and 20 - 80 MeV. In addition the time histories of .5 - 1.1 MeV electrons are shown on a separate scale. To assist in the identification of related solar events, the onset time of the electron event is indicated. The details of the instrumentation and detector techniques are described. Further descriptions of data reduction procedure and on the time-history plots are given