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Register a new userRelativistic Proton Production During the 14 July 2000 Solar Event: The Case for Multiple Source Mechanisms
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Daniel Bombardieri Mr
Publication date
2006
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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Protons accelerated to relativistic energies by transient solar and interplanetary phenomena caused a ground-level cosmic ray enhancement on 14 July 2000, Bastille Day. Near-Earth spacecraft measured the proton flux directly and ground-based observatories measured the secondary responses to higher energy protons. We have modelled the arrival of these relativistic protons at Earth using a technique which deduces the spectrum, arrival direction and anisotropy of the high-energy protons that produce increased responses in neutron monitors. To investigate the acceleration processes involved we have employed theoretical shock and stochastic acceleration spectral forms in our fits to spacecraft and neutron monitor data. During the rising phase of the event (10:45 UT and 10:50 UT) we find that the spectrum between 140 MeV and 4 GeV is best fitted by a shock acceleration spectrum. In contrast, the spectrum at the peak (10:55 UT and 11:00 UT) and in the declining phase (11:40 UT) is best fitted with a stochastic acceleration spectrum. We propose that at least two acceleration processes were responsible for the production of relativistic protons during the Bastille Day solar event: (1) protons were accelerated to relativistic energies by a shock, presumably a coronal mass ejection (CME). (2) protons were also accelerated to relativistic energies by stochastic processes initiated by magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence.
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In this report we present a complex metric burst, associated with the 14 July 2000 major solar event, recorded by the ARTEMIS-IV radio spectrograph at Thermopylae. Additional space-borne and Earth-bound observational data are used, in order to identify and analyze the diverse, yet associated, processes during this event. The emission at metric wavelengths consisted of broad-band continua including a moving and a stationary type IV, impulsive bursts and pulsating structures. The principal release of energetic electrons in the corona was 15 20 min after the start of the flare, in a period when the flare emission spread rapidly eastwards and a hard X-ray peak occurred. Backward extrapolation of the CME also puts its origin in the same time interval, however, the uncertainty of the extrapolation does not allow us to associate the CME with any particular radio or X-ray signature. Finally, we present high time and spectral resolution observations of pulsations and fiber bursts, together with a preliminary statistical analysis.
This work presents results from simulations of the 14 July 2000 (Bastille Day) solar proton event. We used the Energetic Particle Radiation Environment Model (EPREM) and the CORona-HELiosphere (CORHEL) software suite within the SPE Threat Assessment Tool (STAT) framework to model proton acceleration to GeV energies due to the passage of a CME through the low solar corona, and compared the model results to GOES-08 observations. The coupled simulation models particle acceleration from 1 to 20 $R_odot$, after which it models only particle transport. The simulation roughly reproduces the peak event fluxes, and timing and spatial location of the energetic particle event. While peak fluxes and overall variation within the first few hours of the simulation agree well with observations, the modeled CME moves beyond the inner simulation boundary after several hours. The model therefore accurately describes the acceleration processes in the low corona and resolves the sites of most rapid acceleration close to the Sun. Plots of integral flux envelopes from multiple simulated observers near Earth further improve the comparison to observations and increase potential for predicting solar particle events. Broken-power-law fits to fluence spectra agree with diffusive acceleration theory over the low energy range. Over the high energy range, they demonstrate the variability in acceleration rate and mirror the inter-event variability observed solar-cycle 23 GLEs. We discuss ways to improve STAT predictions, including using corrected GOES energy bins and computing fits to the seed spectrum. This paper demonstrates a predictive tool for simulating low-coronal SEP acceleration.
Ground-level enhancements (GLEs) generally accompany with fast interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), the shocks driven by which are the effective source of solar energetic particles (SEPs). In the GLE event of 2000 July 14, observations show that a very fast and strong magnetic cloud (MC) is behind the ICME shock and the proton intensity-time profiles observed at 1 au had a rapid two-step decrease near the sheath and MC. Therefore, we study the effect of sheath and MC on SEPs accelerated by an ICME shock through numerically solving the focused transport equation. The shock is regarded as a moving source of SEPs with an assumed particle distribution function. The sheath and MC are set to thick spherical caps with enhanced magnetic field, and the turbulence levels in sheath and MC are set to be higher and lower than that of the ambient solar wind, respectively. The simulation results of proton intensity-time profiles agree well with the observations in energies ranging from $sim$1 to $sim$100 MeV, and the two-step decrease is reproduced when the sheath and MC arrived at the Earth. The simulation results show that the sheath-MC structure reduced the proton intensities for about 2 days after shock passing through the Earth. It is found that the sheath contributed most of the decrease while the MC facilitated the formation of the second step decrease. The simulation also infers that the coordination of magnetic field and turbulence in sheath-MC structure can produce a stronger effect of reducing SEP intensities.
Forbush decreases (Fds) in galactic cosmic ray intensity are related to interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). The parallel diffusion of particles is reduced because the magnetic turbulence level in sheath region bounded by ICMEs leading edge and shock is high. Besides, in sheath and magnetic cloud (MC) energetic particles would feel enhanced magnetic focusing effect caused by the strong inhomogeneity of the background magnetic field. Therefore, particles would be partially blocked in sheath-MC structure. Here, we study two-step Fds by considering the magnetic turbulence and background magnetic field in sheath-MC structure with diffusion coefficients calculated with theoretical models, to reproduce the Fd associated with the ground-level enhancement event on 2000 July 14 by solving the focused transport equation. The sheath and MC are set to spherical caps that are portions of spherical shells with enhanced background magnetic field. Besides, the magnetic turbulence levels in sheath and MC are set to higher and lower than that in ambient solar wind, respectively. In general, the simulation result conforms to the main characteristics of the Fd observation, such as the pre-increase precursor, amplitude, total recovery time, and the two-step decrease of the flux at the arrival of sheath and MC. It is suggested that sheath played an important role in the amplitude of Fd while MC contributed to the formation of the second step decrease and prolonged the recovery time. It is also inferred that both magnetic turbulence and background magnetic field in sheath-MC structure are important for reproducing the observed two-step Fd.
Using the geomagnetic storm of July 15, 2000 as an example, we investigated the dependence of GPS navigation system performance on the nightside at mid-latitudes on the level of geomagnetic disturbance. The investigation was based on the data from the global GPS system available through the Internet. It was shown that the number of GPS phase slips increases with the increasing level of disturbance and that there is a good correlation between the rate of Dst-variation and the frequency of slips. It was further shown that the relative frequency of slips has also a clearly pronounced aspect dependence. Phase slips of the GPS signal can be caused by the scattering from small-scale irregularities of the ionospheric E-layer. Phase slip characteristics are indicative of Farley-Buneman instabilities as a plausible physical mechanism that is responsible for the formation of geomagnetic field-aligned irregularities. Using simultaneous measurements of backscatter signal characteristics from the Irkutsk incoherent scatter radar and existing models for such irregularities, we estimated the order of magnitude of the expected phase fluctuations of the GPS signal at a few degrees.
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