Pitch-angle distributions of solar wind Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Carcaboso F.
  2. Gomez-Herrero R.
  3. Espinosa Lara F.
  4. Hidalgo M.A.
  5. Cernuda I.,Rodriguez-Pacheco J.
  6. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

Suprathermal electron pitch-angle distributions (PADs) contain substantial information about the magnetic topology of the solar wind. Their characterisation and quantification allow us to automatically identify periods showing certain characteristics. This work presents a robust automatic method for the identification and statistical study of two different types of PADs: bidirectional suprathermal electrons (BDE, often associated with closed magnetic structures) and isotropic (likely corresponding to solar-detached magnetic field lines or highly scattered electrons). Spherical harmonics were fitted to the observed suprathermal PADs of the 119-193eV energy channel of STEREO/SWEA from March 2007 to July 2014, and they were characterised using signal processing analysis in order to identify periods of isotropic and bidirectional PADs. The characterisation has been validated by comparing the results obtained here with those of previous studies. Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) present longer BDE periods inside the magnetic obstacles. A significant amount of BDE remain after the end of the ICME. Isotropic PADs are found in the sheath of the ICMEs, and at the post-ICME region likely due to the erosion of the magnetic field lines. Both isotropy and BDE are solar-cycle dependent. The isotropy observed by STEREO shows a nearly annual periodicity, which requires further investigation. There is also a correspondence between the number of ICMEs observed and the percentage of time showing BDE. A method to characterise PADs has been presented and applied to the automatic identification of two relevant distributions that are commonly observed in the solar wind, such as BDE and isotropy. Four catalogues (STEREO-A and STEREO-B for isotropic and BDE periods of at least 10min) based on this identification are provided for future applications.

Keywords
  1. the-sun
  2. solar-system
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2020A&A...635A..79C
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/635/A79
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/635/A79
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.36350079

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History

2020-03-10T11:42:56Z
Resource record created
2020-03-10T11:42:56Z
Created
2020-09-03T13:30:50Z
Updated

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr