Interplanetary transport of solar near-relativistic electrons on 2014 August 1 over a narrow range of heliolongitudes

Abstract

We study two consecutive solar near-relativistic (>50 keV) electron events observed on 2014 August 1 by both STEREO spacecraft with a longitudinal separation of only about 35°. The events were unambiguously associated with a solar source location and not accompanied by type II radio bursts or coronal mass ejections. Despite their close location, the two spacecraft were embedded in different solar wind streams and the electron intensities observed by the two STEREOs showed clear differences in onset times, peak intensities and pitch-angle distributions. The apparently better connected spacecraft, STEREO B, observed a smaller and more isotropic intensity increase and a later event onset time than STEREO A. Since the interplanetary transport conditions of solar energetic particles (SEPs) have a direct influence on the characteristics of the observed temporal profiles and the particle anisotropies at the spacecraft location, our aim is to understand if the observations on 2014 August 1 could be explained by different interplanetary transport conditions along each flux tube connecting the spacecraft with the solar source. For that purpose, we use a Monte Carlo interplanetary transport model combined with an inversion procedure to fit the in-situ observations of the two near-relativistic multi-spacecraft electron events. This allows us to obtain the injection profiles at the Sun and infer the transport conditions, which are characterized by the electron radial mean free path, λr. We obtain an almost simultaneous release of electrons for both spacecraft in both events. The release is consistent with the timing and duration of the type III radio burst emission and it is larger for STEREO B, the better connected spacecraft. In addition, we obtain different transport conditions in different solar wind streams. We find that the stream in which STEREO B was embedded was more diffusive (λr = 0.1AU for Event I and λr = 0.06AU for Event II) than the stream in which STEREO A was embedded (λr = 0.31AU for Event I and λr = 0.37AU for Event II). These different transport regimes are sufficient to explain the early onset for the worse connected spacecraft, STEREO A, and the observation of larger and more anisotropic intensities.

Keywords

• solar energetic particles
• interplanetary transport
• Sun
• solar flares