HR: 0800h
AN: SH51A-0269    [Abstracts]
TI: Energetic $^{3}$He in the Inner Heliosphere: 1997 to 2004
AU: * Wiedenbeck, M E
EM: mark.e.wiedenbeck@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, M.S. 169-327, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Mason, G M
AF: University of Maryland, Department of Physics, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Cohen, C M
AF: California Institute of Technology, M.S. 220-47, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: Cummings, A C
AF: California Institute of Technology, M.S. 220-47, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: Dwyer, J R
AF: Florida Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics and Space Sciences, Melbourne, FL 32901 United States
AU: Gold, R E
AF: Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD 20723 United States
AU: Krimigis, S M
AF: Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD 20723 United States
AU: Leske, R A
AF: California Institute of Technology, M.S. 220-47, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: Mazur, J E
AF: Aerospace Corporation, M2/259, El Segundo, CA 90245 United States
AU: Mewaldt, R A
AF: California Institute of Technology, M.S. 220-47, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: Stone, E C
AF: California Institute of Technology, M.S. 220-47, Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: von Rosenvinge, T T
AF: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 661, Greenbelt, MD 20771
AB: ACE observations of helium isotopes in solar energetic particles have shown that $^{3}$He was present in the interplanetary medium at 1 AU more than half of the time during the early portion of solar cycle 23 (specifically from August 1997 to April 2002). The observed $^{3}$He particles, with energies in the range 0.2 to 16 MeV/nuc, are believed to be accelerated in numerous small impulsive solar flare events. The suprathermal ions resulting from such events have been shown to provide a seed population which can be further accelerated by shocks in the solar corona or interplanetary medium. We have extended our previous investigation to include the time interval from early 2002 to late 2004, a period during which solar activity declined significantly. In addition to presenting the time dependence of $^{3}$He in the interplanetary medium over a 7-year period, we examine correlations between this energetic particle population and various measures of solar flare activity in order to assess, on a statistical basis, the characteristics of the sources of these particles and to determine the extent to which flare activity can provide a useful indication of the presence of flare suprathermals in the interplanetary medium.
DE: 2114 Energetic particles, heliospheric (7514)
DE: 2118 Energetic particles, solar
DE: 2162 Solar cycle variations (7536)
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting