First solar electron events observed by EPD aboard Solar Orbiter
- 1Universidad de Alcalá, Dpto. Física y Matemáticas, Alcalá de Henares, Spain (raul.gomezh@uah.es)
- 2Institut für Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik, Christian- Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
- 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland
- 4Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
- 7National Observatory of Athens, Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing, Athens, Greece
- 8Departament de Física Quàntica i Astrofísica, Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB), Universitat de Barcelona (UB-IEEC), Barcelona, Spain
- 9Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Rd, San Antonio, TX, 78238, USA
- 10LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France
- 11Department of Space and Climate Physics, University College London, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, RH5 6NT, UK
- 12Department of Physics, GeorgeWashington University,Washington, DC 20052, USA; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- 13Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA
- *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract
The first solar electron events detected by Solar Orbiter were observed by the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) suite during July 11-23, 2020, when the spacecraft was at heliocentric distances between 0.61 and 0.69 au. We combined EPD electron observations from 4 keV to the relativistic range (few MeV), radio dynamic spectra and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) observations from multiple spacecraft in order to identify the solar origin of these electron events. Electron anisotropies and timing as well as the plasma and magnetic field environment were evaluated to characterize the interplanetary transport conditions. We found that all the electron events were clearly associated with type III radio bursts. EUV jets were also found in association with all of them except one. A diversity of time profiles and pitch-angle distributions (ranging from almost isotropic to beam-like) was observed. These observations indicate that different source locations and different magnetic connectivity and transport conditions were likely involved. The broad spectral range covered by EPD with excellent energy resolution and the high time cadence ensure that future observations close to the Sun will contribute to the understanding of the acceleration, release, and transport processes of energetic particles. EPD observations will play a key role in the identification of the sources of impulsive events and the links between the near-relativistic electrons and the ion populations enriched in 3He and heavy ions
Javier Rodríguez-Pacheco, Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, Bernd Heber, Lars Berger, Robert C. Allen, Nils P. Janitzek, Monica Laurenza, Rossana De Marco, Nicolas Wijsen, Yulia Kartavykh, Wolfgang Dröge, Tim S. Horbury, Milan Maksimovic, Christopher J. Owen, Antonio Vecchio, Xavier Bonnin, Oksana Kruparova, David Pisa, Jan Soucek, Philippe Louarn, Andrei Fedorov, Helen O'Brien, Vincent Evans, Virginia Angelini, Pietro Zucca, Manuel Prieto, Sebastián Sánchez-Prieto, Alberto Carrasco, Juan J. Blanco, Pablo Parra, Óscar Rodríguez-Polo, César Martín, J. Christoph Terasa, Sebastian Boden, Shrinivasrao R. Kulkarni, Ali Ravanbakhsh, Mahesh Yedla, Zigong Xu, Bruce Andrews, Chuck Schlemm, Helmut Seifert, Kush Tyagi, Jeff Lees, John Hayes
How to cite: Gómez-Herrero, R., Pacheco, D., Kollhoff, A., Espinosa Lara, F., Freiherr von Forstner, J. L., Dresing, N., Lario, D., Balmaceda, L., Krupar, V., Malandraki, O. E., Aran, A., Bucik, R., Klassen, A., Klein, K.-L., Cernuda, I., Eldrum, S., Reid, H., Mitchell, J. G., Mason, G. M., and Ho, G. C. and the Solar Orbiter EPD/RPW/MAG/SWA Teams: First solar electron events observed by EPD aboard Solar Orbiter, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-13329, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13329, 2021.
