HR: 0800h
AN: SM51A-10    [Abstracts]
TI: Low Energy Particle Observations Associated With a Solar Wind Reconnection Exhaust on July 22, 1999
AU: * Huttunen, K E
EM: huttunen@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 7 Gauss Way #7450, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Bale, S D
EM: bale@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 7 Gauss Way #7450, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Salem, C
EM: salem@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 7 Gauss Way #7450, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AB: We examine particle signatures associated with a solar wind reconnection exhaust on July 22, 1999 using experiments on the Wind satellite. The passage of the exhaust past the satellite took only 40 seconds and thus it was essential that the 3D-P instrument on Wind was operating in a ‘burst mode' that provides full three- dimensional particle distributions. In this work we analyze the characteristics of thermal electrons (EESA-L) and protons (PESA-L) before, during and after the exhaust. EESA-L and PESA-L measurements were first converted into units of distribution function. Then the data was transferred to the solar wind rest frame and corrected for the spacecraft potential. The observations show a proton beam coming from the direction of the X-line and increases in the electron fluxes at the exhaust boundaries. These are likely associated with the ion-acoustic and Langmuir waves identified at the exhaust boundary. Despite of the large rotation in the magnetic field direction the solar wind heat flux remained parallel to the magnetic field throughout the event implying no change in the IMF polarity.
DE: 2164 Solar wind plasma
DE: 7526 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7835)
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7526)
DE: 7867 Wave/particle interactions (2483, 6984)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly