SH14B-01
Particle Acceleration At Small-Scale Flux Ropes In The Heliosphere
Monday, 14 December 2015: 16:00
2007 (Moscone West)
Gary Paul Zank1,2, Peter Hunana2, Parisa Mostafavi3, Jakobus Albertus le Roux3, Gang Li3, Gary M Webb4, Olga Khabarova5, Alan C Cummings6, Edward C Stone6 and Robert B Decker7, (1)Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, Huntsville, AL, United States, (2)University of Alabama in Huntsville, Space Science, Huntsville, AL, United States, (3)University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, United States, (4)University of Alabama in Huntsville, CSPAR, Huntsville, AL, United States, (5)IZMIRAN RAS, Moscow, Russia, (6)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (7)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Space, Laurel, MD, United States
Abstract:
An emerging paradigm for the dissipation of magnetic turbulence in the supersonic solar wind is via localized small-scale reconnection processes, essentially between quasi-2D interacting magnetic islands or flux roped. Charged particles trapped in merging magnetic islands can be accelerated by the electric field generated by magnetic island merging and the contraction of magnetic islands. We discuss the basic physics of particle acceleration by single magnetic islands and describe how to incorporate these ideas in a distributed “sea of magnetic islands”. We describe briefly some observations, selected simulations, and then introduce a transport approach for describing particle acceleration at small-scale flux ropes. We discuss particle acceleration in the supersonic solar wind and extend these ideas to particle acceleration at shock waves. These models are appropriate to the acceleration of both electrons and ions. We describe model predictions and supporting observations.
