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Comparing Post-Reconnection Energetic Electron and Ion Signatures in Earth’s Inner
Magnetosphere and Near the Sun
Harlan E. Spenceand
Nathan A. Schwadron
Boston UniversityCenter for Space Physics
• RHESSI observations (2003) spatially-resolve for first time the locations of electron and ion acceleration in solar flares
• Comparison of ion (neutron capture) and electron (bremsstrahlung) proxies reveals dislocation of accelerated electron and ion populations near the Sun
Excerpts from Hurford’s discovery paper
Sola
r limb
Ion sites (circles)
Electron sites (contours)
• Initial RHESSI results affirmed in Hurford et al.’s (2006) publication
• Three additional flares possess similar accelerated electron/ion location phenomenology
• Gradient/curvature drift separation explored and rejected
• Displacements still not adequately explained
• Inner magnetosphere substorm injections have similar phenomenology
• Phenomena has been well studies observationally and recently through MHD modeling and test particle simulation
• Birn et al.’s (1997, 1998) simulations reproduce observed features well
Earthward collapsing field
lines
Noon-midnightmeridian
Electrons displaced to east
Ions displaced to west
Substorm Life Cycle