| Name: | Govind Nampoothiri |
| Affiliation: | Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre |
| Conference ID : | ASI2024_163 |
| Title : | Phase Space Evolution of Solar Wind Electrons near 1 au during the SpaceX ICME event |
| Authors : | Govind G. Nampoothiri |
| Authors Affiliation: | Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram – 695022, India. |
| Mode of Presentation: | Poster |
| Abstract Category : | Sun, Solar System, Exoplanets, and Astrobiology |
| Abstract : | The solar wind is the dynamic expansion of the Sun’s upper atmosphere. Since the solar wind is a less collisional rarified plasma, kinetic physics and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics are used to study it. In this context, the Particle Velocity Distribution Function (VDF) is a key tool in exploring the kinetic properties of the solar wind. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large-scale magnetised plasma expulsions from the Sun into the heliosphere. The CME-solar wind interaction often results in the interchange of kinetic energy and momentum between the two. Understanding the physics of the kinetic scale processes at play in a CME-solar wind interaction is a challenging and significant area of research in space physics. In this context, we explore the kinetic properties of solar wind electrons near 1 au during the passage of two consecutive earth-directed CMEs that erupted on 29th and 31st January 2022, respectively. The first CME erupted at around 11:36 UT on 29th from the active region AR12936. An M-class solar flare was also observed prior to this eruption. This CME was an earth-directed halo CME, and it traversed with a bulk speed of ~ 777 km/s. The second CME erupted at 20:05 UT on 31st January, along with a moderate C-class flare from the same active region, AR12936. This CME 2 has a bulk speed of 420 km/s. Both CMEs reached near Earth (1 au) on the 1st and 3rd of February, respectively, generating multiscale perturbations in the ambient solar wind. In this work, using the observed electron VDFs measured by the three-dimensional plasma instrument (3DP) aboard the WIND spacecraft, we quantitatively explored the evolution of the phase space behaviour and kinetic properties of electrons in this disturbed solar wind plasma near 1 au. We also inferred a qualitative picture of the magnetic topology of these ICMEs. |
