1,211 research outputs found
Electron heating at interplanetary shocks
Data for 41 forward interplanetary shocks show that the ratio of downstream to upstream electron temperatures. T sub e (d/u) is variable in the range between 1.0 (isothermal) and 3.0. On average, (T sub e (d/u) = 1.5 with a standard deviation, sigma e = 0.5. This ratio is less than the average ratio of proton temperatures across the same shocks, (T sub p (d/u)) = 3.3 with sigma p = 2.5 as well as the average ratio of electron temperatures across the Earth's bow shock. Individual samples of T sub e (d/u) and T sub p (d/u) appear to be weakly correlated with the number density ratio. However the amounts of electron and proton heating are well correlated with each other as well as with the bulk velocity difference across each shock. The stronger shocks appear to heat the protons more efficiently than they heat the electrons
Can Streamer Blobs prevent the Buildup of the Interplanetetary Magnetic Field?
Coronal Mass Ejections continuously drag closed magnetic field lines away
from the Sun, adding new flux to the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). We
propose that the outward-moving blobs that have been observed in helmet
streamers are evidence of ongoing, small-scale reconnection in streamer current
sheets, which may play an important role in the prevention of an indefinite
buildup of the IMF. Reconnection between two open field lines from both sides
of a streamer current sheet creates a new closed field line, which becomes part
of the helmet, and a disconnected field line, which moves outward. The blobs
are formed by plasma from the streamer that is swept up in the trough of the
outward moving field line. We show that this mechanism is supported by
observations from SOHO/LASCO. Additionally, we propose a thorough statistical
study to quantify the contribution of blob formation to the reduction of the
IMF, and indicate how this mechanism may be verified by observations with
SOHO/UVCS and the proposed NASA STEREO and ESA Polar Orbiter missions.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures; accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letters;
uses AASTe
Plasma properties of driver gas following interplanetary shocks observed by ISEE-3
Plasma fluid parameters calculated from solar wind and magnetic field data obtained on ISEE 3 were studied. The characteristic properties of driver gas following interplanetary shocks was determined. Of 54 shocks observed from August 1978 to February 1980, nine contained a well defined driver gas that was clearly identifiable by a discontinuous decrease in the average proton temperature across a tangential discontinuity. While helium enhancements were present in all of nine of these events, only about half of them contained simultaneous changes in the two quantities. Often the He/H ratio changed over a period of minutes. Simultaneous with the drop in proton temperature the helium and electron temperature decreased abruptly. In some cases the proton temperature depression was accompanied by a moderate increase in magnetic field magnitude with an unusually low variance and by an increase in the ratio of parallel to perpendicular temperature. The drive gas usually displayed a bidirectional flow of suprathermal solar wind electrons at higher energies
Magnetic Reconnection and Intermittent Turbulence in the Solar Wind
A statistical relationship between magnetic reconnection, current sheets and
intermittent turbulence in the solar wind is reported for the first time using
in-situ measurements from the Wind spacecraft at 1 AU. We identify
intermittency as non-Gaussian fluctuations in increments of the magnetic field
vector, , that are spatially and temporally non-uniform. The
reconnection events and current sheets are found to be concentrated in
intervals of intermittent turbulence, identified using the partial variance of
increments method: within the most non-Gaussian 1% of fluctuations in
, we find 87%-92% of reconnection exhausts and 9% of current
sheets. Also, the likelihood that an identified current sheet will also
correspond to a reconnection exhaust increases dramatically as the least
intermittent fluctuations are removed from the dataset. Hence, the turbulent
solar wind contains a hierarchy of intermittent magnetic field structures that
are increasingly linked to current sheets, which in turn are progressively more
likely to correspond to sites of magnetic reconnection. These results could
have far reaching implications for laboratory and astrophysical plasmas where
turbulence and magnetic reconnection are ubiquitous.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter
A global assessment of the impact of climate change on water scarcity
This paper presents a global scale assessment of the impact of climate change on water scarcity. Patterns of climate change from 21 Global Climate Models (GCMs) under four SRES scenarios are applied to a global hydrological model to estimate water resources across 1339 watersheds. The Water Crowding Index (WCI) and the Water Stress Index (WSI) are used to calculate exposure to increases and decreases in global water scarcity due to climate change. 1.6 (WCI) and 2.4 (WSI) billion people are estimated to be currently living within watersheds exposed to water scarcity. Using the WCI, by 2050 under the A1B scenario, 0.5 to 3.1 billion people are exposed to an increase in water scarcity due to climate change (range across 21 GCMs). This represents a higher upper-estimate than previous assessments because scenarios are constructed from a wider range of GCMs. A substantial proportion of the uncertainty in the global-scale effect of climate change on water scarcity is due to uncertainty in the estimates for South Asia and East Asia. Sensitivity to the WCI and WSI thresholds that define water scarcity can be comparable to the sensitivity to climate change pattern. More of the world will see an increase in exposure to water scarcity than a decrease due to climate change but this is not consistent across all climate change patterns. Additionally, investigation of the effects of a set of prescribed global mean temperature change scenarios show rapid increases in water scarcity due to climate change across many regions of the globe, up to 2°C, followed by stabilisation to 4°C
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Magnetic reconnection in space plasmas
This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Magnetic reconnection produces fundamental changes in the magnetic field topology of plasmas and leads ultimately to substantial plasma heating and acceleration. The transfer of stored magnetic field energy to the plasma occurs primarily at thin conversion layers that extend outward from the reconnection site. We performed a comparative study of the structure and nature of these conversion layers as observed during reconnection at Earth`s magnetopause and in the geomagnetic tail. Our research utilized plasma and magnetic field data from the Earth-orbiting ISEE satellites during crossings of the conversion layers at the magnetopause and in the geomagnetic tail, as well as data obtained during a long-duration balloon flight in Antarctica and simultaneously from satellites in geosynchronous orbit. We have found that the reconnection layer at the magnetopause usually does not contain a slow mode shock, contrary to earlier theoretical expectations. Through a coordinated analysis of data obtained from balloon altitudes and at geosynchronous orbit, we obtained evidence that reconnection can occur simultaneously in both hemispheres at the magnetopause above the polar caps. The final year of our study was oriented primarily towards the question of determining the magnetic topology of disturbances in the solar wind associated with coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and understanding how that topology is affected by magnetic reconnection occurring near the Sun
Acceleration of Solar Wind Ions by Nearby Interplanetary Shocks: Comparison of Monte Carlo Simulations with Ulysses Observations
The most stringent test of theoretical models of the first-order Fermi
mechanism at collisionless astrophysical shocks is a comparison of the
theoretical predictions with observational data on particle populations. Such
comparisons have yielded good agreement between observations at the
quasi-parallel portion of the Earth's bow shock and three theoretical
approaches, including Monte Carlo kinetic simulations. This paper extends such
model testing to the realm of oblique interplanetary shocks: here observations
of proton and alpha particle distributions made by the SWICS ion mass
spectrometer on Ulysses at nearby interplanetary shocks are compared with test
particle Monte Carlo simulation predictions of accelerated populations. The
plasma parameters used in the simulation are obtained from measurements of
solar wind particles and the magnetic field upstream of individual shocks. Good
agreement between downstream spectral measurements and the simulation
predictions are obtained for two shocks by allowing the the ratio of the
mean-free scattering length to the ionic gyroradius, to vary in an optimization
of the fit to the data. Generally small values of this ratio are obtained,
corresponding to the case of strong scattering. The acceleration process
appears to be roughly independent of the mass or charge of the species.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, AASTeX format, to appear in the Astrophysical
Journal, February 20, 199
Determining the Magnetic Field Orientation of Coronal Mass Ejections from Faraday Rotation
We describe a method to measure the magnetic field orientation of coronal
mass ejections (CMEs) using Faraday rotation (FR). Two basic FR profiles,
Gaussian-shaped with a single polarity or "N"-like with polarity reversals, are
produced by a radio source occulted by a moving flux rope depending on its
orientation. These curves are consistent with the Helios observations,
providing evidence for the flux-rope geometry of CMEs. Many background radio
sources can map CMEs in FR onto the sky. We demonstrate with a simple flux rope
that the magnetic field orientation and helicity of the flux rope can be
determined 2-3 days before it reaches Earth, which is of crucial importance for
space weather forecasting. An FR calculation based on global
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of CMEs in a background heliosphere shows
that FR mapping can also resolve a CME geometry curved back to the Sun. We
discuss implementation of the method using data from the Mileura Widefield
Array (MWA).Comment: 22 pages with 9 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophys.
Modern pollen-vegetation relationships along a steep temperature gradient in the Tropical Andes of Ecuador
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this record.The characterization of modern pollen rain assemblages along environmental gradients is an essential prerequisite for reliable interpretations of fossil pollen records. In this study, we identify pollen-vegetation relationships using modern pollen rain assemblages in moss polsters (n = 13) and lake sediment surface samples (n = 11) along a steep temperature gradient of 7°C (3100–4200 m above sea level) on the western Andean Cordillera, Ecuador. The pollen rain is correlated to vascular plant abundance data recorded in vegetation relevées (n = 13). Results show that pollen spectra from both moss polsters and sediment surface samples reflect changes in species composition along the temperature gradient, despite overrepresentation of upper montane forest taxa in the latter. Estimated pollen transport distance for a lake (Laguna Llaviucu) situated in a steep upper montane forest valley is 1–2 km, while a lake (Laguna Pallcacocha) in the páramo captures pollen input from a distance of up to 10–40 km. Weinmannia spp., Podocarpus spp., and Hedyosmum sp. are indicators of local upper montane forest vegetation, while Phlegmariurus spp. and Plantago spp. are indicators for local páramo vegetation.Earth and Life Science council (ALW) of the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Researc
Plasma Depletion and Mirror Waves Ahead of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections
We find that the sheath regions between fast interplanetary coronal mass
ejections (ICMEs) and their preceding shocks are often characterized by plasma
depletion and mirror wave structures, analogous to planetary magnetosheaths. A
case study of these signatures in the sheath of a magnetic cloud (MC) shows
that a plasma depletion layer (PDL) coincides with magnetic field draping
around the MC. In the same event, we observe an enhanced thermal anisotropy and
plasma beta as well as anti-correlated density and magnetic fluctuations which
are signatures of mirror mode waves. We perform a superposed epoch analysis of
ACE and Wind plasma and magnetic field data from different classes of ICMEs to
illuminate the general properties of these regions. For MCs preceded by shocks,
the sheaths have a PDL with an average duration of 6 hours (corresponding to a
spatial span of about 0.07 AU) and a proton temperature anisotropy -1.3, and are marginally unstable to the
mirror instability. For ICMEs with preceding shocks which are not MCs, plasma
depletion and mirror waves are also present but at a reduced level. ICMEs
without shocks are not associated with these features. The differences between
the three ICME categories imply that these features depend on the ICME geometry
and the extent of upstream solar wind compression by the ICMEs. We discuss the
implications of these features for a variety of crucial physical processes
including magnetic reconnection, formation of magnetic holes and energetic
particle modulation in the solar wind.Comment: fully refereed, accepted for publication in J. Geophys. Re
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