Electron energy partition across interplanetary shocks: II. Statistics


Abstract in English

A statistical analysis of 15,210 electron velocity distribution function (VDF) fits, observed within $pm$2 hours of 52 interplanetary (IP) shocks by the $Wind$ spacecraft near 1 AU, is presented. This is the second in a three-part series on electron VDFs near IP shocks. The electron velocity moment statistics for the dense, low energy core, tenuous, hot halo, and field-aligned beam/strahl are a statistically significant list of values illustrated with both histograms and tabular lists for reference and baselines in future work. The beam/strahl fit results in the upstream are currently the closest thing to a proper parameterization of the beam/strahl electron velocity moments in the ambient solar wind. This work will also serve as a 1 AU baseline and reference for missions like $Parker Solar Probe$ and $Solar Orbiter$. The median density, temperature, beta, and temperature anisotropy values for the core(halo)[beam/strahl] components, with subscripts $ec$($eh$)[$eb$], of all fit results respectively are $n{scriptstyle_{ec(h)[b]}}$ $sim$ 11.3(0.36)[0.17] $cm^{-3}$, $T{scriptstyle_{ec(h)[b], tot}}$ $sim$ 14.6(48.4)[40.2] $eV$, $beta{scriptstyle_{ec(h)[b], tot}}$ $sim$ 0.93(0.11)[0.05], and $mathcal{A}{scriptstyle_{ec(h)[b]}}$ $sim$ 0.98(1.03)[0.93]. The nuanced details of the fitting method and data product description were published in Paper I and the detailed analysis of the results will be shown in Paper III.

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