Long-Duration Neutron Production in Solar Eruptive Events Detected with the MESSENGER Neutron Spectrometer

Abstract:

Nine long-duration neutron solar eruptive events (SEEs) between 31 December 2007 and 16 March 2013 appear to be excellent candidates for detection of fast neutrons from the Sun by the MESSENGER Neutron Spectrometer (NS). One event (on 4 June 2011) is the cleanest example, because it was not accompanied by energetic ions at MESSENGER having energies greater than 50±10 MeV/nuc. The purpose of this study is to assemble a set of conditions common to all events that can help identify the physical conditions at their origin. We classified the nine events into three categories: (1) those having tight magnetic connection to the Sun as well as to spacecraft at 1 AU that can separately measure the energetic proton, alpha particle, and electron flux spectra, (2) those with sufficiently close connection that the energetic flux spectra can be compared, (3) those that have only marginal connections, and (4) those that are also seen at Earth. Four events fall into category (1), three into category (2), two into category (3), and parts of four events overlapped neutron events also seen by the scintillation FIBer solar neutron telescope (FIB) detector placed on the International Space Station in 2009. Seven of the nine events that have either tight or marginal magnetic connection have alpha particle abundances less than 2%. For each event, we modeled expected fast neutron count rates from the 1 AU ion spectrum, a process that accounts for the transport of the neutrons through the spacecraft to the NS. The ratios of measured to predicted fast-neutron counts range between 2.0 and 12.1.