Mapping Magnetic Field Lines between the Sun and Earth

Abstract:

An approach is developed for mapping large-scale magnetic field lines between the Sun and Earth near the solar equatorial plane, using near-Earth observations and a solar wind model with nonzero azimuthal magnetic field at the source surface. Unlike Parker's original solar wind model which is intrinsically limited in magnetic azimuthal angle and predicts open spiral field lines only, our approach can predict all the observed magnetic azimuthal angles and can predict both open field lines and magnetic loops. The predicted maps show that near both solar minimum and solar maximum the field lines are typically open, and that loops with both ends either connected to or disconnected from the Sun are relatively rare. The open field lines, nonetheless, often do not closely follow the Parker spiral, being less or more tightly wound or strongly azimuthally or radially oriented, or having inversions. The time-varying classes (e.g., bidirectional electrons) of suprathermal (strahl) electron pitch angle distributions at 1 AU are predicted from the configurations of mapped field lines and compared with Wind observations for two solar rotations, one each near solar minimum and solar maximum. The predictions of our approach are shown to agree quantitatively (~90%) with the observations and to outperform (by ~20%) the predictions of the Parker spiral model. The magnetic mapping developed here should be important for understanding the connectivity to Earth of suprathermal particles of solar origin, e.g., solar energetic particles and beam electrons in type III solar radio bursts.