Long-lived energetic particle source regions on the Sun

Discovered more than 40 years ago, impulsive solar energetic particle (SEP) events are still poorly understood. The enormous abundance enhancement of the rare 3He isotope is the most striking feature of these events, though large enhancements in heavy and ultra-heavy nuclei are also observed. Recurrent 3He-rich SEPs in impulsive events have only been observed for limited time periods, up to a few days which is typically the time that a single stationary spacecraft is magnetically connected to the source active regions on the Sun. With the launch of the two STEREO spacecraft we now have the possibility of longer connection time to solar active regions. We examined the evolution of source regions showing repeated 3He-rich SEP emissions for relatively long time periods. We found that recurrent 3He-rich SEPs in these long-lived sources occur after the emergence of magnetic flux.

Multi-Spacecraft Observations of Recurrent 3He-Rich Solar Energetic Particles

We study the origin of 3He-rich solar energetic particles (<1 MeV/nucleon) that are observed consecutively on STEREO-B, ACE, and STEREO-A spacecraft when they are separated in heliolongitude by more than 90{deg}. The 3He-rich period on STEREO-B and STEREO-A commences on 2011 July 1 and 2011 July 16, respectively. The ACE 3He-rich period consists of two sub-events starting on 2011 July 7 and 2011 July 9. We associate the STEREO-B July 1 and ACE July 7 3He-rich events with the same sizeable active region producing X-ray flares accompanied by prompt electron events, when it was near the west solar limb as seen from the respective spacecraft. The ACE July 9 and STEREO-A July 16 events were dispersionless with enormous 3He enrichment, lacking solar energetic electrons and occurring in corotating interaction regions. We associate these events with a small, recently emerged active region near the border of a low-latitude coronal hole that produced numerous jet-like emissions temporally correlated with type III radio bursts. For the first time we present observations of 1) solar regions with long-lasting conditions for 3He acceleration and 2) solar energetic 3He that is temporary confined/re-accelerated in interplanetary space.

Recurring 3He-rich Solar Energetic Particle Events

Using the SIT instrument aboard STEREO we have examined the abundance of the 3He during the ascending phase of solar cycle 24 from January 2010 through December 2012. We report on several cases when 3He-rich solar energetic particle events were successively observed on ACE and STEREO-A with delays consistent with the Carrington rotation rate. In the investigated period ACE and STEREO-A were significantly separated in the heliolongitude corresponding to solar rotation times of 5 to 10 days. We inspect STEREO-A EUV images and use the potential-field source-surface extrapolations together with in-situ magnetic field data to identify responsible solar sources. We find the 3He/4He ratio highly variable in these events and correlated between the spacecraft for the cases with the same connection region on the Sun.

Abundances of Suprathermal Heavy Ions in CIRs on STEREO during the Minimum of Solar Cycle 23

We examine the composition of the 0.1 - 1 MeV/n interplanetary heavy ions from H to Fe in corotating interaction regions (CIRs) measured by the SIT (Suprathermal Ion Telescope) instrument. We use observations taken on board the two STEREO spacecraft during the unusually long minimum of Solar Cycle 23 from January 2007 through December 2010. During this period instruments on STEREO observed more than 50 CIR events making it possible to investigate CIR ion abundances during solar minimum conditions with unprecedentedly high statistics. The observations reveal annual variations of relative ion abundances in the CIRs during the 2007 - 2008 period. In 2010 the elemental composition in CIRs were influenced by solar energetic particle events.

Simulation of a Time-Of-Flight Telescope for Suprathermal Ions in the Heliosphere

A Monte Carlo code based on Geant 3.21 has been used for simulations of energy losses and angular scattering in a time-of-flight Suprathermal Ion Telescope (SIT) on the Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO). A hemispherical isotropic particle distribution, a monoenergetic or power law in energy is used in these simulations. The impact of scattering, energy losses and system noise on the instrument mass resolution is discussed.

STEREO observations of the energetic ions in tilted corotating interaction regions

In this paper we examine suprathermal He ions measured by the SIT (Suprathermal Ion Telescope) instrument associated with tilted corotating interaction regions (CIRs). We use observations of the two STEREO spacecraft (s/c) for the first 2.7 years of the mission, along with ground-based measurements of the solar magnetic field during the unusually long minimum of Solar Cycle 23. Due to the unique configuration of the STEREO s/c orbits we are able to investigate spatial variations in the intensity of the corotating ions on time scales of less than one solar rotation. The observations reveal that the occurrence of the strong CIR events was the most frequent at the beginning of the period. The inclination of the heliospheric current sheet relative to the heliographic equator (the tilt angle) was quite high in the first stage of the mission and gradually flattened with the time, followed by a decrease in the CIR activity. By examining the differences between measurements on the two STEREO s/c we discuss how the changes in the position of the s/c relative to the CIRs affect the energetic particle observations. We combine STEREO observations with observations from the ULEIS instrument on the ACE s/c and argue that the main factor which controls the differences in the ion intensities is the latitudinal separation between the two STEREO s/c relative to the tilted CIRs. The position of the s/c is less important when the tilt angle is high. In this case we found that the CIR ion intensity positively correlates with the tilt angle.

Abundances of Suprathermal Heavy Ions in CIRs during the Minimum of Solar Cycle 23

In this paper we examine the elemental composition of the 0.1-1 MeV/nucleon interplanetary heavy ions from H to Fe in corotating interaction regions (CIRs) measured by the SIT (Suprathermal Ion Telescope) instrument. We use observations taken on board the STEREO spacecraft from January 2007 through December 2010, which included the unusually long solar minimum following solar cycle 23. During this period instruments on STEREO observed more than 50 CIR events making it possible to investigate CIR ion abundances during solar minimum conditions with unprecedented high statistics. The observations reveal annual variations of relative ion abundances in the CIRs during the 2007-2008 period as indicated by the He/H, He/O and Fe/O elemental ratios. We discuss possible causes of the variability in terms of the helium focusing cone passage and heliolatitude dependence. The year 2009 was very quiet in CIR event activity. In 2010 the elemental composition in CIRs were influenced by sporadic solar energetic particle (SEP) events. The 2010 He/H and He/O abundance ratios in CIRs show large event to event variations with values resembling the SEP-like composition. This finding points out that the suprathermal SEPs could be the source population for CIR acceleration.