Stationary and impulsive injection of electron beams in converging magnetic field

In this work we study time-dependent precipitation of an electron beam injected into a flaring atmosphere with a converging magnetic field by considering collisional and Ohmic losses with anisotropic scattering and pitch angle diffusion. Two injection regimes are investigated: short impulse and stationary injection. The effects of converging magnetic fields with different spatial profiles are compared and the energy deposition produced by the precipitating electrons at different depths and regimes is calculated. The time dependent Fokker-Planck equation for electron distribution in depth, energy and pitch angle was solved numerically by using the summary approximation method. It was found that steady state injection is established for beam electrons at 0.07-0.2 seconds after the injection onset depending on the initial beam parameters. Energy deposition by a stationary beam is strongly dependent on a self-induced electric field but less on a magnetic field convergence. Energy depositions by short electron impulses are found to be insensitive to the self-induced electric field but are strongly affected by a magnetic convergence. Short beam impulses are shown to produce sharp asymmetric hard X-ray bursts within a millisecond timescale often observed in solar flares.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures, Astronomy and Astrophysics (accepted

Comparison of seismic signatures of flares obtained by SOHO/MDI and GONG instruments

The first observations of seismic responses to solar flares were carried out using time-distance (TD) and holography techniques applied to SOHO/MDI Dopplergrams obtained from space and un-affected by terrestrial atmospheric disturbances. However, the ground-based network GONG is potentially a very valuable source of sunquake observations, especially in cases where space observations are unavailable. In this paper we present updated technique for pre-processing of GONG observations for application of subjacent vantage holography. Using this method and TD diagrams we investigate several sunquakes observed in association with M and X-class solar flares and compare the outcomes with those reported earlier using MDI data. In both GONG and MDI datasets, for the first time, we also detect the TD ridge associated with the September 9, 2001 flare. Our results show reassuringly positive identification of sunquakes from GONG data that can provide further information about the physics of seismic processes associated with solar flares.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, accepted to Astrophysical Journa

Criminal legislation improvement of environment protection as eco-protective means of Russian Federation

The paper is dedicated to Article 246 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation which provides for the criminal responsibility of infringement of environment protection rules during work performance. The paper presents both general scientific (empirical data processing technique and system-based structural technique) and private-law (benchmarking analysis and history-based law) research approaches. Based upon comprehensive environmental legislation research as well as current criminal regulation measures in industrial production and other manufacturing activities, the author comes to a conclusion that infringement of environment protection rules during work performance is a failure to comply with requirements, approved techniques, technical regulations in the environment protection field for a specific kind of production along with the failure to comply with different standards in the environment protection field. To recognize a person as a legal entity under Article 246 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, one should pay attention not only to legal confirmation of obligation to enforce environment protection rules during work performance or to monitor compliance, but also an actual execution without being enshrined in law. The author brings a new wording for Article 246 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation as well as its supplementary Part 2 and Part 3

Particle acceleration in a reconnecting current sheet: PIC simulation

The acceleration of protons and electrons in a reconnecting current sheet (RCS) is simulated with a particle-in-cell (PIC) 2D3V code for the proton-to-electron mass ratio of 100. The electro-magnetic configuration forming the RCS incorporates all three components of the magnetic field (including the guiding field) and a drifted electric field. PIC simulations reveal that there is a polarisation electric field that appears during acceleration owing to a separation of electrons from protons towards the midplane of the RCS. If the plasma density is low, the polarisation field is weak and the particle trajectories in the PIC simulations are similar to those in the test particle (TP) approach. For the higher plasma density the polarisation field is stronger and it affects the trajectories of protons by increasing their orbits during acceleration. This field also leads to a less asymmetrical abundances of ejected protons towards the midplane in comparison with the TP approach. For a given magnetic topology electrons in PIC simulations are ejected to the same semispace as protons, contrary to the TP results. This happens because the polarisation field extends far beyond the thickness of a current sheet. This field decelerates the electrons, which are initially ejected into the semispace opposite to the protons, returns them back to the RCS, and, eventually, leads to the electron ejection into the same semispace as protons. Energy distribution of the ejected electrons is rather wide and single-peak, contrary to the two-peak narrow-energy distribution obtained in the TP approach. In the case of a strong guiding field, the mean energy of the ejected electrons is found to be smaller than it is predicted analytically and by the TP simulations.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, J. Plasma Physics (accepted

Comparison of solar activity proxies: eigen vectors versus averaged sunspot numbers

We attempt to establish links between a summary curve, or modulus summary curve, MSC, of the solar background magnetic field (SBMF) derived from Principal Component Analysis, with the averaged sunspot numbers (SSN). The comparison of MSC with the whole set of SSN reveals rather close correspondence of cycle timings, duration and maxima times for the cycles 12- 24, 6,7 and -4,-3. Although, in 1720-1760 and 1830-1860 there are discrepancies in maximum amplitudes of the cycles, durations and shifts of the maximum times between MSC and SSN curves. The MSC curve reveals pretty regular cycles with double maxima (cycles 1-4), triple maximum amplitude distributions for cycles 0 and 1 and for cycles -1 and -2 just before Maunder minimum. The MSC cycles in 1700-1750 reveal smaller maximal magnitudes in cycles -3 to 0 and in cycle 1-4 than the amplitudes of SSN, while cycles -2 to 0 have reversed maxima with minima with SSN. Close fitting of MSC or Bayesian models to the sunspot curve distorts the occurrences of either Maunder Minimum or/and modern grand solar minimum (2020-2053). These discrepancies can be caused by poor observations and by difference in solar magnetic fields responsible for these proxies. The dynamo simulations of toroidal and poloidal magnetic field in the grand solar cycle (GSC) from 1650 until 2050 demonstrate the clear differences between their amplitude variations during the GSC. The use of eigen vectors of SBMF can provide additional information to that derived from SSN that can be useful for understanding solar activity.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figur

Reply to comment on the paper “ on a role of quadruple component of magnetic field in defining solar activity in grand cycles” by Usoskin (2017)

In this communication we provide our answers to the comments by Usoskin (2017) on our recent paper (Popova et al, 2017a). We show that Principal Component Analysis (PCA) allows us to derive eigen vectors with eigen values assigned to variance of solar magnetic field waves from full disk solar magnetograms obtained in cycles 21–23 which came in pairs. The current paper (Popova et al, 2017a) adds the second pair of magnetic waves generated by quadruple magnetic sources. This allows us to recover a centennial cycle, in addition to the grand cycle, and to produce a closer fit to the solar and terrestrial activity features in the past millennium