Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Statistical acceleration of interstellar pick‐up ions in co‐rotating interaction regions

1996; American Geophysical Union; Volume: 23; Issue: 21 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1029/96gl02833

1944-8007

N. A. Schwadron, L. A. Fisk, G. Gloeckler,

Astro and Planetary Science

Observations from the SWICS instrument on Ulysses reveal that there is little evidence for the acceleration of interstellar pick‐up ions at the forward and reverse shocks which surround Co‐rotating Interactions Regions (CIR's) in the solar wind. Rather, the pick‐up ions exhibit strong acceleration in regions within the CIR where there are increased variations in the magnitude of the magnetic field. A simple model is presented in which the pick‐up ions are statistically accelerated by transit‐time damping the magnitude variations. The model yields the observed distribution functions for the accelerated pick‐up ions.