No Arabic abstract
The most intense solar energetic particle events are produced by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) accompanied by intense type II radio bursts below 15 MHz. Understanding where these type II bursts are generated relative to an erupting CME would reveal important details of particle acceleration near the Sun, but the emission cannot be imaged on Earth due to distortion from its ionosphere. Here, a technique is introduced to identify the likely source location of the emission by comparing the observed dynamic spectrum observed from a single spacecraft against synthetic spectra made from hypothesized emitting regions within a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical simulation of the recreated CME. The radio-loud 2005 May 13 CME was chosen as a test case, with Wind/WAVES radio data used to frame the inverse problem of finding the most likely progression of burst locations. An MHD recreation is used to create synthetic spectra for various hypothesized burst locations. A framework is developed to score these synthetic spectra by their similarity to the type II frequency profile derived from Wind/WAVES data. Simulated areas with 4x enhanced entropy and elevated de Hoffmann Teller velocities are found to produce synthetic spectra similar to spacecraft observations. A geometrical analysis suggests that the eastern edge of the entropy derived shock around (-30, 0) degrees in heliocentric coordinates was emitting in the first hour of the event before ceasing emission, and that the western/southwestern edge of the shock centered around (6, -12) degrees was a dominant area of radio emission for the 2 hours of simulation data out to 20 solar radii.
We investigated the relationship between the spectral structures of type II solar radio bursts in the hectometric and kilometric wavelength ranges and solar energetic particles (SEPs). To examine the statistical relationship between type II bursts and SEPs, we selected 26 coronal mass ejection (CME) events with similar characteristics (e.g., initial speed, angular width, and location) observed by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO), regardless of the characteristics of the corresponding type II bursts and the SEP flux. Then, we compared associated type II bursts observed by the Radio and Plasma Wave Experiment (WAVES) onboard the Wind spacecraft and the SEP flux observed by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) orbiting around the Earth. We found that the bandwidth of the hectometric type II bursts and the peak flux of the SEPs has a positive correlation (with a correlation coefficient of 0.64). This result supports the idea that the nonthermal electrons of type II bursts and the nonthermal ions of SEPs are generated by the same shock and suggests that more SEPs may be generated for a wider or stronger CME shock with a longer duration. Our result also suggests that considering the spectral structures of type II bursts can improve the forecasting accuracy for the peak flux of gradual SEPs.
Band split of solar type II radio bursts, discovered several decades ago, is a fascinating phenomenon with the type-II lanes exhibiting two almost-parallel sub-bands with similar morphology. The underlying split mechanism remains elusive. One popular interpretation is that the splitting bands are emitted from the shock upstream and downstream, respectively, with their frequency ratio ({gamma}) determined by the shock compression ratio. This interpretation has been taken as the physical basis for many published references. Here we report an observational analysis of type II events with nice split selected from the ground-based RSTN data from 2001 to 2014, in the metric-decametric wavelength. We investigate the temporal variation and distribution of {gamma}, and conduct correlation analyses on the deduced spectral values. It is found that {gamma} varies in a very narrow range with >80% of {gamma} (one-minute averaged data) being between 1.15 to 1.25. For some well-observed and long-lasting events, {gamma} does not show a systematic variation trend within observational uncertainties, from the onset to the termination of the splits. In addition, the parameters representing the propagation speed of the radio source (presumably the coronal shock) show a very weak or basically no correlation with {gamma}. We suggest that these results do not favor the upstreamdownstream scenario of band splits.
The Sun is an active source of radio emission which is often associated with the acceleration of electrons arising from processes such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). At low radio frequencies (<100 MHz), numerous solar S bursts (where S stands for short) and storms of Type III radio bursts have been observed, that are not directly relates to flares and CMEs. Here, we expand our understanding on the spectral characteristic of these two different types of radio bursts based on observations from the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR). On 9 July 2013, over 3000 solar S bursts accompanied by over 800 Type III radio bursts were observed over a time period of ~8 hours. The characteristics of Type III radio bursts are consistent to previous studies, while S bursts show narrow bandwidths, durations and drift rates of about 1/2 the drift rate of Type III bursts. Type III bursts and solar S bursts occur in a region in the corona where plasma emission is the dominant emission mechanism as determined by data constrained density and magnetic field models.
Drift-pair bursts are an unusual type of solar low-frequency radio emission, which appear in the dynamic spectra as two parallel drifting bright stripes separated in time. Recent imaging spectroscopy observations allowed for the quantitative characterization of the drifting pairs in terms of source size, position, and evolution. Here, the drift-pair parameters are qualitatively analyzed and compared with the newly-developed Monte Carlo ray-tracing technique simulating radio-wave propagation in the inhomogeneous anisotropic turbulent solar corona. The results suggest that the drift-pair bursts can be formed due to a combination of the refraction and scattering processes, with the trailing component being the result of turbulent reflection (turbulent radio echo). The formation of drift-pair bursts requires an anisotropic scattering with the level of plasma density fluctuations comparable to that in type III bursts, but with a stronger anisotropy at the inner turbulence scale. The anisotropic radio-wave scattering model can quantitatively reproduce the key properties of drift-pair bursts: the apparent source size and its increase with time at a given frequency, the parallel motion of the source centroid positions, and the delay between the burst components. The trailing component is found to be virtually co-spatial and following the main component. The simulations suggest that the drift-pair bursts are likely to be observed closer to the disk center and below 100 MHz due to the effects of free-free absorption and scattering. The exciter of drift-pairs is consistent with propagating packets of whistlers, allowing for a fascinating way to diagnose the plasma turbulence and the radio emission mechanism.
We report on the radio-emission characteristics of 222 interplanetary (IP) shocks. A surprisingly large fraction of the IP shocks (~34%) is radio quiet (i.e., the shocks lacked type II radio bursts). The CMEs associated with the RQ shocks are generally slow (average speed ~535 km/s) and only ~40% of the CMEs were halos. The corresponding numbers for CMEs associated with radio loud (RL) shocks are 1237 km/s and 72%, respectively. The RQ shocks are also accompanied by lower peak soft X-ray flux. CMEs associated with RQ (RL) shocks are generally accelerating (decelerating). The kinematics of CMEs associated with the km type II bursts is similar to those of RQ shocks, except that the former are slightly more energetic. Comparison of the shock The RQ shocks seem to be mostly subcritical and quasi-perpendicular. The radio-quietness is predominant in the rise phase and decreases through the maximum and declining phases of solar cycle 23. The solar sources of the shock-driving CMEs follow the sunspot butterfly diagram, consistent with the higher-energy requirement for driving shocks.