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Parker Solar Probe observations of solar wind energetic proton beams produced by magnetic reconnection in the near-Sun heliospheric current sheet
  • +23
  • Tai-Duc Phan,
  • J. L. Verniero,
  • Davin E. Larson,
  • Benoit Lavraud,
  • Jonathan P. Eastwood,
  • Marit Øieroset,
  • James F. Drake,
  • Stuart d Bale,
  • Roberto Livi,
  • Jasper S. Halekas,
  • Phyllis L Whittlesey,
  • Ali Rahmati,
  • Marc Pulupa,
  • Robert John MacDowall,
  • Adam Szabo,
  • Andriy Koval,
  • Mihir Desai,
  • Stephen A. Fuselier,
  • Marco Velli,
  • Michael Hesse,
  • Prayash Sharma Pyakurel,
  • Kush Maheshwari,
  • Justin C. Kasper,
  • Mike Stevens,
  • Anthony William Case,
  • Nour-Eddine Raouafi
Tai-Duc Phan
UC Berkeley

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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J. L. Verniero
University of California, Berkeley
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Davin E. Larson
University of California, Berkeley
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Benoit Lavraud
Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie - CNRS
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Jonathan P. Eastwood
Imperial College London
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Marit Øieroset
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
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James F. Drake
University of Maryland, College Park
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Stuart d Bale
Unversity of California, Berkeley
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Roberto Livi
University of California, Berkeley
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Jasper S. Halekas
University of Iowa
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Phyllis L Whittlesey
University of California, Berkeley
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Ali Rahmati
University of California, Berkeley
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Marc Pulupa
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley
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Robert John MacDowall
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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Adam Szabo
Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA)
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Andriy Koval
Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute
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Mihir Desai
Southwest Research Institute
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Stephen A. Fuselier
Southwest Research Institute
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Marco Velli
University of California Los Angeles
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Michael Hesse
NASA Ames Research Center
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Prayash Sharma Pyakurel
University of Delaware
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Kush Maheshwari
UC Berkeley
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Justin C. Kasper
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Mike Stevens
CFA/Harvard
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Anthony William Case
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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Nour-Eddine Raouafi
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
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Abstract

We report observations of reconnection exhausts and associated ion and electron separatrix layers in and around the Heliospheric Current Sheet (HCS) during PSP Encounters 08 and 07, at 16 Rs and 20 Rs. HCS reconnection accelerated protons to almost twice the solar wind speed and increased the proton core energy by a factor of ~3, due to the Alfvén speed being comparable to the solar wind flow speed at these near-Sun distances. During E08, accelerated protons were found to have leaked out of the exhaust along separatrix field lines, appearing as field-aligned energetic proton beams in a broad region outside the HCS. Concurrent dropouts of strahl electrons, indicating disconnection from the Sun, provide further evidence for the HCS being the source of the beams. Around the HCS in E07, there were also proton beams but without electron strahl dropouts, indicating that their origin was non-local and closer to the Sun.
16 May 2022Published in Geophysical Research Letters volume 49 issue 9. 10.1029/2021GL096986