HR: 0800h
AN: SH21A-0297    [Abstracts]
TI: Cluster/PEACE Electron Velocity Distribution Function Modeling in the Solar Wind
AU: * Chinchilla, T N
EM: tnieves@lssp-mail.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Geospace Physics Laboratory Mail Code 673, Greenbelt, MD 21114, United States
AU: Viñas, A F
EM: adolfo.vinas@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Geospace Physics Laboratory Mail Code 673, Greenbelt, MD 21114, United States
AU: Goldstein, M L
EM: melvyn.l.goldstein@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Geospace Physics Laboratory Mail Code 673, Greenbelt, MD 21114, United States
AB: We present a study of the kinetic properties of the electron velocity distribution functions in the solar wind to model the electron heat-flux and temperature anisotropy, to investigate the stability of electron to the excitation of whistler waves. The study is based on high time resolution data from the Cluster/PEACE electron spectrometer. Our study focused in the mechanisms that control and regulates whistler electron instabilities in the solar wind. These mechanisms are not well understood. We investigate the electron heat-flux and temperature anisotropy as a function of two important parameters, namely the electron parallel plasma β_e\Vert and the electron collisional age A_e defined as the number of collisions suffered by an electron during the expansion of the solar wind. The goal is to check whether the electrons are constrained and regulated by some instability (e.g., the whistler instability), or are driven by collisions. The electron heat-flux and temperature anisotropy are determined by moments of the velocity distribution functions (VDF) and/or model fitting of the electron VDF using a superposition of a bi-Maxwellian core distribution, bi-Kappa halo and strahl distributions.
DE: 2159 Plasma waves and turbulence
DE: 2164 Solar wind plasma
DE: 7829 Kinetic waves and instabilities
DE: 7867 Wave/particle interactions (2483, 6984)
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting