Energy Balance at Interplanetary Shocks: In-situ Measurement of the Fraction in Supra-thermal and Energetic Particles with ACE and Wind

Liam David, Federico Fraschetti, Joe Giacalone, Robert Wimmer-Schweingruber, Lars Berger, David Lario

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

The acceleration of charged particles by interplanetary shocks can drain a non-negligible fraction of the upstream ram pressure. For a sample of shocks observed in-situ at 1 AU by the ACE and Wind spacecraft, time-series of the non-Maxwellian components (supra-thermal and higher-energy) of the ion and electron energy spectra were acquired for each event. These were averaged for one hour before and after the time of the shock passage to determine their partial pressure. Using the MHD Rankine-Hugoniot jump conditions, we find that the fraction of the total upstream energy flux transferred to non-Maxwellian downstream particles is typically about 2-16%. Notably, our sample shows that neither the fast magnetosonic Mach number nor the angle between the shock normal and average upstream magnetic field are correlated with non-Maxwellian particle pressure.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number1311
JournalProceedings of Science
Volume395
StatePublished - Mar 18 2022
Event37th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2021 - Virtual, Berlin, Germany
Duration: Jul 12 2021Jul 23 2021

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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