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We expose and quantify the inaccuracies of plasma bulk parameters derived from the calculation of velocity moments of noisyin-situplasma observations. First, we simulate typical solar wind proton plasma observations, obtained by a typical top-hat electrostatic analyzer instrument. We add background noise to the simulated observations and analyze them by applying standard methods to derive the plasma density, speed, and temperature. We then compare the analysis results with the parameters we use to simulate the observations in the first place, in order to quantify the inaccuracies in the calculated plasma parameters as functions of the noise level in the observations. We find that even noise levels that are smaller than 1% of the signal peak, lead to significant inaccuracies in some plasma parameters. The plasma temperature suffers the biggest inaccuracies and the plasma speed the smallest. Our results highlight the importance of removing noise from observations when calculating the moments of the constructed plasma distributions. We finally, evaluate one simple method to remove uniform background noise automatically from measurements, which is useful for future on-board analyses.

We analyze the micro-kinetic stability of the electron strahl in the solar wind depending on heliocentric distance. The oblique fast-magnetosonic/whistler (FM/W) instability has emerged in the literature as a key candidate mechanism for the effective scattering of the electron strahl into the electron halo population. Using data from Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and Helios, we compare the measured strahl properties with the analytical thresholds for the oblique FM/W instability in the low- and high-$\beta_{\parallel c}$ regimes, where $\beta_{\parallel c}$ is the ratio of the core parallel thermal pressure to the magnetic pressure. Our PSP and Helios data show that the electron strahl is on average stable against the oblique FM/W instability in the inner heliosphere. Our analysis suggests that the instability, if at all, can only be excited sporadically and on short timescales. We discuss the caveats of our analysis and potential alternative explanations for the observed scattering of the electron strahl in the solar wind. Furthermore, we recommend the numerical evaluation of the stability of individual distributions in the future to account for any uncertainties in the validity of the analytical expressions for the instability thresholds., Comment: Accepted in ApJL

In the White Paper, submitted in response to the European Space Agency (ESA) Voyage 2050 Call, we present the importance of advancing our knowledge of plasma-neutral gas interactions, and of deepening our understanding of the partially ionized environments that are ubiquitous in the upper atmospheres of planets and moons, and elsewhere in space. In future space missions, the above task requires addressing the following fundamental questions: (A) How and by how much do plasma-neutral gas interactions influence the re-distribution of externally provided energy to the composing species? (B) How and by how much do plasma-neutral gas interactions contribute toward the growth of heavy complex molecules and biomolecules? Answering these questions is an absolute prerequisite for addressing the long-standing questions of atmospheric escape, the origin of biomolecules, and their role in the evolution of planets, moons, or comets, under the influence of energy sources in the form of electromagnetic and corpuscular radiation, because low-energy ion-neutral cross-sections in space cannot be reproduced quantitatively in laboratories for conditions of satisfying, particularly, (1) low-temperatures, (2) tenuous or strong gradients or layered media, and (3) in low-gravity plasma. Measurements with a minimum core instrument package (

We analyze proton bulk parameters derived from Ulysses observations and investigate the polytropic behavior of solar wind protons over a wide range of heliocentric distances and latitudes. The large-scale variations of the proton density and temperature over heliocentric distance indicate that plasma protons are governed by subadiabatic processes (polytropic index γ < 5/3), if we assume protons with three effective kinetic degrees of freedom. From the correlation between the small-scale variations of the plasma density and temperature in selected subintervals, we derive a polytropic index γ ∼ 1.4 on average. Further examination shows that the polytropic index does not have an apparent dependence on the solar wind speed. This agrees with the results of previous analyses of solar wind protons at ∼1 au. We find that the polytropic index varies slightly over the range of the heliocentric distances and heliographic latitudes explored by Ulysses. We also show that the homogeneity of the plasma and the accuracy of the polytropic model applied to the data points vary over Ulysses' orbit. We compare our results with the results of previous studies that derive the polytropic index of solar wind ions within the heliosphere using observations from various spacecraft. We finally discuss the implications of our findings in terms of heating mechanisms and the effective degrees of freedom of the plasma protons.

Energy dissipation in collisionless plasmas is a longstanding fundamental physics problem. Although it is well known that magnetic reconnection and turbulence are coupled and transport energy from system-size scales to sub-proton scales, the details of the energy distribution and energy dissipation channels remain poorly understood. Especially, the energy transfer and transport associated with three dimensional (3D) small-scale reconnection that occurs as a consequence of a turbulent cascade is unknown. We use an explicit fully kinetic particle-in-cell code to simulate 3D small scale magnetic reconnection events forming in anisotropic and Alfv\'enic decaying turbulence. We identify a highly dynamic and asymmetric reconnection event that involves two reconnecting flux ropes. We use a two-fluid approach based on the Boltzmann equation to study the spatial energy transfer associated with the reconnection event and compare the power density terms in the two-fluid energy equations with standard energy-based damping, heating and dissipation proxies. Our findings suggest that the electron bulk flow transports thermal energy density more efficiently than kinetic energy density. Moreover, in our turbulent reconnection event, the energy-density transfer is dominated by plasma compression. This is consistent with turbulent current sheets and turbulent reconnection events, but not with laminar reconnection., Comment: Accepted for publication in Apj

Energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) are produced by the neutralization of energetic ions formed by shock-accelerated gradual solar energetic particle events (SEP). These high-energy ENAs (HENAs) can reach the Earth earlier than the associated SEPs and provide information about the SEPs at the lower corona. The HENA properties observed at Earth depend on the properties of the coronal mass ejection (CME)-driven shocks that accelerate the SEPs. With a model of HENA production in a shock-accelerated SEP event, we semi-quantitatively investigate the energy-time spectrum of HENAs depending on the width, propagation speed, and direction of the shock, as well as the density and ion abundances of the lower corona. Compared to the baseline model parameters, the cases with a wider shock width angle or a higher coronal density would increase the HENA flux observed at the Earth, while the case with an Earth-propagating shock shows a softened HENA spectrum. The comparison of expected HENA fluxes in different cases with a flight-proven ENA instrument suggests that solar HENAs can feasibly be monitored with current technologies, which could provide a lead time of 2-3 hours for SEPs at a few MeV. We propose that monitoring of solar HENAs could provide a new method to forecast shock-driven SEP events that could have significant space weather impacts on the near-Earth environment.

Context. Solar wind electrons play an important role in the energy balance of the solar wind acceleration by carrying energy into interplanetary space in the form of electron heat flux. The heat flux is stored in the complex electron velocity distribution functions (VDFs) shaped by expansion, Coulomb collisions, and field-particle interactions. Aims. We investigate how the suprathermal electron deficit in the anti-strahl direction, which was recently discovered in the near-Sun solar wind, drives a kinetic instability and creates whistler waves with wave vectors that are quasi-parallel to the direction of the background magnetic field. Methods. We combined high-cadence measurements of electron pitch-angle distribution functions and electromagnetic waves provided by Solar Orbiter during its first orbit. Our case study is based on a burst-mode data interval from the Electrostatic Analyser System (SWA-EAS) at a distance of 112 RS (0.52 au) from the Sun, during which several whistler wave packets were detected by Solar Orbiter’s Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument. Results. The sunward deficit creates kinetic conditions under which the quasi-parallel whistler wave becomes unstable. We directly test our predictions for the existence of these waves through solar wind observations. We find whistler waves that are quasi-parallel and almost circularly polarised, propagating away from the Sun, coinciding with a pronounced sunward deficit in the electron VDF. The cyclotron-resonance condition is fulfilled for electrons moving in the direction opposite to the direction of wave propagation, with energies corresponding to those associated with the sunward deficit. Conclusions. We conclude that the sunward deficit acts as a source of quasi-parallel whistler waves in the solar wind. The quasilinear diffusion of the resonant electrons tends to fill the deficit, leading to a reduction in the total electron heat flux.

Context. We demonstrate the calculation of solar wind electron bulk parameters based on recent observations by Solar Wind Analyser – Electron Analyser System on board Solar Orbiter. We use our methods to derive the electron bulk parameters in a time interval spanning several hours. We attempt a preliminary examination of the polytropic behavior of the electrons by analyzing the derived electron density and temperature. Moreover, we discuss the challenges in analyzing the observations due to the spacecraft charging and photo-electron contamination in the energy range below 10 eV. Aims. We derived bulk parameters for thermal solar wind electrons by analyzing Solar Orbiter observations and we investigated whether there is any typical polytropic model that is applicable to the electron density and temperature fluctuations. Methods. We used the appropriate transformations to convert the observations to velocity distribution functions in the instrument frame. We then derived the electron bulk parameters by: (a) calculating the statistical moments of the constructed velocity distribution functions and (b) fitting the constructed distributions with analytical expressions. We first tested our methods by applying them to an artificial data set, which we produced by using the forward modeling technique. Results. The forward model validates the analysis techniques we use to derive the electron bulk parameters. The calculation of the statistical moments and the fitting method determines bulk parameters that are identical (within the uncertainty limits) to the input parameters that we use to simulate the plasma electrons in the first place. An application of our analysis technique to the data reveals a nearly isothermal electron “core”. The results are affected by the spacecraft potential and the photo-electron contamination, which should be characterized in detail as part of future analyses.

Small-scale kinetic processes associated with turbulence, plasma instabilities, magnetic reconnection, etc., play a major role in dissipating energy and governing the large-scale evolution of the solar wind. However, a general impediment to improving the understanding of the kinetic physics of the solar wind is in the limitations on measurement cadences of particle instruments, which are usually several orders of magnitude below the equivalent cadences of field instruments. Nevertheless, knowledge of the details of the particle velocity distribution functions (VDFs) at sub-second cadence is required to make progress in this area. This is particularly true for the electron VDFs, which play a significant role in the overall energetics of the solar wind through their transmission of heat flux from the Sun. In this paper, we detail and illustrate a novel measurement scheme deployed on Solar Orbiter’s Solar Wind Analyser Electron Analyser System (SWA-EAS), which allows for 2D pitch angle distributions (PAD) to be returned over short periods (5–10 min) at a cadence of 0.125 s. This is achieved through the use of a B-field vector shared by the magnetometer (MAG) instrument to steer the SWA-EAS system to record only that part of the full SWA-EAS field-of-view needed to construct the PAD. We provide an example of early observations using this scheme to illustrate that it is working well. Given that the electrons are usually gyrotropic, these measurements provide a new tool with which to derive details of the electron VDFs at high cadence for the study of the solar wind’s kinetic processes.

The Bernoulli integral describes the energy conservation of a fluid along specific streamlines. The integral is the sum of individual terms that contain the plasma density, speed, temperature, and magnetic field. Typical solar wind analyses use the fluctuations of the Bernoulli integral as a criterion to identify different plasma streamlines from single spacecraft observations. However, the accurate calculation of the Bernoulli integral requires accurately determining the plasma polytropic index from the analysis of density and temperature observations. To avoid this complexity, we can simplify the calculations by keeping only the dominant terms of the integral. Here, we analyze proton plasma and magnetic field observations obtained by the Wind spacecraft at 1 au, during 1995. We calculate the Bernoulli integral terms and quantify their significance by comparing them with each other. We discuss potential simplifications of the calculations in the context of determining solar wind proton thermodynamics using single spacecraft observations.

We examine the relationships between temperature tensor elements and their connection to the polytropic equation, which describes the relationship between the plasma scalar temperature and density. We investigate the possibility to determine the plasma polytropic index by fitting the fluctuations of temperature either perpendicular or parallel to the magnetic field. Such an application is particularly useful when the full temperature tensor is not available from the observations. We use solar wind proton observations at ~1 au to calculate the correlations between the temperature tensor elements and the scalar temperature. Our analysis also derives the polytropic equation in selected streamlines of solar wind plasma proton observations that exhibit temperature anisotropies related to stream-interaction regions. We compare the polytropic indices derived by fitting fluctuations of the scalar, perpendicular, and parallel temperatures, respectively. We show that the use of the parallel or perpendicular temperature, instead of the scalar temperature, still accurately derives the true, average polytropic index value, but only for a certain level of temperature anisotropy variability within the analyzed streamlines. The use of the perpendicular temperature leads to more accurate calculations, because its correlation with the scalar temperature is less affected by the anisotropy fluctuations.

We use 3D fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations to study the occurrence of magnetic reconnection in a simulation of decaying turbulence created by anisotropic counter-propagating low-frequency Alfv\'en waves consistent with critical-balance theory. We observe the formation of small-scale current-density structures such as current filaments and current sheets as well as the formation of magnetic flux ropes as part of the turbulent cascade. The large magnetic structures present in the simulation domain retain the initial anisotropy while the small-scale structures produced by the turbulent cascade are less anisotropic. To quantify the occurrence of reconnection in our simulation domain, we develop a new set of indicators based on intensity thresholds to identify reconnection events in which both ions and electrons are heated and accelerated in 3D particle-in-cell simulations. According to the application of these indicators, we identify the occurrence of reconnection events in the simulation domain and analyse one of these events in detail. The event is related to the reconnection of two flux ropes, and the associated ion and electron exhausts exhibit a complex three-dimensional structure. We study the profiles of plasma and magnetic-field fluctuations recorded along artificial-spacecraft trajectories passing near and through the reconnection region. Our results suggest the presence of particle heating and acceleration related to small-scale reconnection events within magnetic flux ropes produced by the anisotropic Alfv\'enic turbulent cascade in the solar wind. These events are related to current structures of order a few ion inertial lengths in size., Comment: Accepted for publication in J. Plasma Phys

The role of small-scale coronal eruptive phenomena in the generation and heating of the solar wind remains an open question. Here, we investigate the role played by coronal jets in forming the solar wind by testing whether temporal variations associated with jetting in EUV intensity can be identified in the outflowing solar-wind plasma. This type of comparison is challenging due to inherent differences between remote-sensing observations of the source and in-situ observations of the outflowing plasma, as well as travel time and evolution of the solar wind throughout the heliosphere. To overcome these, we propose a novel algorithm combining signal filtering, two-step solar-wind ballistic back-mapping, window shifting, and Empirical Mode Decomposition. We first validate the method using synthetic data, before applying it to measurements from the Solar Dynamics Observatory and Wind spacecraft. The algorithm enables the direct comparison of remote-sensing observations of eruptive phenomena in the corona to in-situ measurements of solar-wind parameters, among other potential uses. After application to these datasets, we find several time windows where signatures of dynamics found in the corona are embedded in the solar-wind stream, at a time significantly earlier than expected from simple ballistic back-mapping, with the best-performing in-situ parameter being the solar-wind mass flux.

We use historical analysis of solar wind plasma and coronal mass ejections to define the range of performance required for an ion analyzer for future space weather monitoring missions. We adopt the design of a top hat electrostatic analyzer, capable of measuring the plasma protons and constructing their three-dimensional distribution functions. The design is based on previous heritage instruments and allows monitoring of extreme space weather events. In order to evaluate the future observations and their analysis methods, we model the expected response of the instrument in simulated plasma conditions. We evaluate a novel analysis method which can determine on board the plasma bulk properties, such as density, velocity, and temperature from the statistical moments of the observed velocity distribution functions of the plasma particles. We quantify the accuracy of the derived parameters critical for space weather purposes, by comparing them with the corresponding input solar wind parameters. In order to validate the instrument design, we examine the accuracy over the entire range of the input parameters we expect to observe in solar wind, from benign to extreme space weather conditions. We also use realistic parameters of fast solar wind streams and interplanetary coronal mass ejections as measured by the Advanced Composition Explorer spacecraft, to investigate the performance of the example instrument and the accuracy of the analysis. We discuss the achieved accuracy and its relevance to space weather monitoring concepts. We address sources of significant errors, and we demonstrate potential improvements by using a fitting analysis method to derive the results.

We propose a transport theory for the kinetic evolution of solar-wind electrons in the heliosphere. We derive a gyro-averaged kinetic transport equation that accounts for the spherical expansion of the solar wind and the geometry of the Parker-spiral magnetic field. To solve our three-dimensional kinetic equation, we develop a mathematical approach that combines the Crank--Nicolson scheme in velocity space and a finite-difference Euler scheme in configuration space. We initialize our model with isotropic electron distribution functions and calculate the kinetic expansion at heliocentric distances from 5 to 20 solar radii. In our kinetic model, the electrons evolve mainly through the combination of the ballistic particle streaming, the magnetic mirror force, and the electric field. By applying fits to our numerical results, we quantify the parameters of the electron strahl and core part of the electron velocity distributions. The strahl fit parameters show that the density of the electron strahl is around 7% of the total electron density at a distance of 20 solar radii, the strahl bulk velocity and strahl temperature parallel to the background magnetic field stay approximately constant beyond a distance of 15 solar radii, and $\beta_{\parallel s}$ (i.e., the ratio between strahl parallel thermal pressure to the magnetic pressure) is approximately constant with heliocentric distance at a value of about 0.02. We compare our results with data measured by Parker Solar Probe. Furthermore, we provide theoretical evidence that the electron strahl is not scattered by the oblique fast-magnetosonic/whistler instability in the near-Sun environment., Comment: Accepted in ApJ

Switchbacks are discrete angular deflections in the solar wind magnetic field that have been observed throughout the heliosphere. Recent observations by Parker Solar Probe (PSP) have revealed the presence of patches of switchbacks on the scale of hours to days, separated by 'quieter' radial fields. We aim to further diagnose the origin of these patches using measurements of proton temperature anisotropy that can illuminate possible links to formation processes in the solar corona. We fitted 3D bi-Maxwellian functions to the core of proton velocity distributions measured by the SPAN-Ai instrument onboard PSP to obtain the proton parallel, $T_{p,\|}$, and perpendicular, $T_{p,\perp}$, temperature. We show that the presence of patches is highlighted by a transverse deflection in the flow and magnetic field away from the radial direction. These deflections are correlated with enhancements in $T_{p,\|}$, while $T_{p,\perp}$ remains relatively constant. Patches sometimes exhibit small proton and electron density enhancements. We interpret that patches are not simply a group of switchbacks, but rather switchbacks are embedded within a larger-scale structure identified by enhanced $T_{p,\|}$ that is distinct from the surrounding solar wind. We suggest that these observations are consistent with formation by reconnection-associated mechanisms in the corona., Comment: Letter accepted as part of the PSP Special Issue in A&A

All authors: Zouganelis, I.; De Groof, A.; Walsh, A. P.; Williams, D. R.; Müller, D.; St Cyr, O. C.; Auchère, F.; Berghmans, D.; Fludra, A.; Horbury, T. S.; Howard, R. A.; Krucker, S.; Maksimovic, M.; Owen, C. J.; Rodríguez-Pacheco, J.; Romoli, M.; Solanki, S. K.; Watson, C.; Sanchez, L.; Lefort, J.; Osuna, P.; Gilbert, H. R.; Nieves-Chinchilla, T.; Abbo, L.; Alexandrova, O.; Anastasiadis, A.; Andretta, V.; Antonucci, E.; Appourchaux, T.; Aran, A.; Arge, C. N.; Aulanier, G.; Baker, D.; Bale, S. D.; Battaglia, M.; Bellot Rubio, L.; Bemporad, A.; Berthomier, M.; Bocchialini, K.; Bonnin, X.; Brun, A. S.; Bruno, R.; Buchlin, E.; Büchner, J.; Bucik, R.; Carcaboso, F.; Carr, R.; Carrasco-Blázquez, I.; Cecconi, B.; Cernuda Cangas, I.; Chen, C. H. K.; Chitta, L. P.; Chust, T.; Dalmasse, K.; D'Amicis, R.; Da Deppo, V.; De Marco, R.; Dolei, S.; Dolla, L.; Dudok de Wit, T.; van Driel-Gesztelyi, L.; Eastwood, J. P.; Espinosa Lara, F.; Etesi, L.; Fedorov, A.; Félix-Redondo, F.; Fineschi, S.; Fleck, B.; Fontaine, D.; Fox, N. J.; Gandorfer, A.; Génot, V.; Georgoulis, M. K.; Gissot, S.; Giunta, A.; Gizon, L.; Gómez-Herrero, R.; Gontikakis, C.; Graham, G.; Green, L.; Grundy, T.; Haberreiter, M.; Harra, L. K.; Hassler, D. M.; Hirzberger, J.; Ho, G. C.; Hurford, G.; Innes, D.; Issautier, K.; James, A. W.; Janitzek, N.; Janvier, M.; Jeffrey, N.; Jenkins, J.; Khotyaintsev, Y.; Klein, K. -L.; Kontar, E. P.; Kontogiannis, I.; Krafft, C.; Krasnoselskikh, V.; Kretzschmar, M.; Labrosse, N.; Lagg, A.; Landini, F.; Lavraud, B.; Leon, I.; Lepri, S. T.; Lewis, G. R.; Liewer, P.; Linker, J.; Livi, S.; Long, D. M.; Louarn, P.; Malandraki, O.; Maloney, S.; Martinez-Pillet, V.; Martinovic, M.; Masson, A.; Matthews, S.; Matteini, L.; Meyer-Vernet, N.; Moraitis, K.; Morton, R. J.; Musset, S.; Nicolaou, G.; Nindos, A.; O'Brien, H.; Orozco Suarez, D.; Owens, M.; Pancrazzi, M.; Papaioannou, A.; Parenti, S.; Pariat, E.; Patsourakos, S.; Perrone, D.; Peter, H.; Pinto, R. F.; Plainaki, C.; Plettemeier, D.; Plunkett, S. P.; Raines, J. M.; Raouafi, N.; Reid, H.; Retino, A.; Rezeau, L.; Rochus, P.; Rodriguez, L.; Rodriguez-Garcia, L.; Roth, M.; Rouillard, A. P.; Sahraoui, F.; Sasso, C.; Schou, J.; Schühle, U.; Sorriso-Valvo, L.; Soucek, J.; Spadaro, D.; Stangalini, M.; Stansby, D.; Steller, M.; Strugarek, A.; Štverák, Š.; Susino, R.; Telloni, D.; Terasa, C.; Teriaca, L.; Toledo-Redondo, S.; del Toro Iniesta, J. C.; Tsiropoula, G.; Tsounis, A.; Tziotziou, K.; Valentini, F.; Vaivads, A.; Vecchio, A.; Velli, M.; Verbeeck, C.; Verdini, A.; Verscharen, D.; Vilmer, N.; Vourlidas, A.; Wicks, R.; Wimmer-Schweingruber, R. F.; Wiegelmann, T.; Young, P. R.; Zhukov, A. N., Solar Orbiter is the first space mission observing the solar plasma both in situ and remotely, from a close distance, in and out of the ecliptic. The ultimate goal is to understand how the Sun produces and controls the heliosphere, filling the Solar System and driving the planetary environments. With six remote-sensing and four in-situ instrument suites, the coordination and planning of the operations are essential to address the following four top-level science questions: (1) What drives the solar wind and where does the coronal magnetic field originate?; (2) How do solar transients drive heliospheric variability?; (3) How do solar eruptions produce energetic particle radiation that fills the heliosphere?; (4) How does the solar dynamo work and drive connections between the Sun and the heliosphere? Maximising the mission's science return requires considering the characteristics of each orbit, including the relative position of the spacecraft to Earth (affecting downlink rates), trajectory events (such as gravitational assist manoeuvres), and the phase of the solar activity cycle. Furthermore, since each orbit's science telemetry will be downloaded over the course of the following orbit, science operations must be planned at mission level, rather than at the level of individual orbits. It is important to explore the way in which those science questions are translated into an actual plan of observations that fits into the mission, thus ensuring that no opportunities are missed. First, the overarching goals are broken down into specific, answerable questions along with the required observations and the so-called Science Activity Plan (SAP) is developed to achieve this. The SAP groups objectives that require similar observations into Solar Orbiter Observing Plans, resulting in a strategic, top-level view of the optimal opportunities for science observations during the mission lifetime. This allows for all four mission goals to be addressed. In this paper, we introduce Solar Orbiter's SAP through a series of examples and the strategy being followed. © 2020 ESO., Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA with contributions from national agencies of ESA member states. The spacecraft has been developed by Airbus and is being operated by ESA from the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. Science operations are carried out at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Villafranca del Castillo, Spain. SWA is an international collaboration which has been funded by the UKSA, CNES, ASI, NASA and the Czech contribution to the ESA PRODEX programme. UAH authors want to thanks the Spanish MINECO-FPI-2016 predoctoral grant with FSE, and its project FEDER/MCIU-AEEI/Proyecto ESP2017-88436-R. The Spanish contribution to SO/PHI has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through several projects, the last one being RTI2018-096886-B-C5, and by "Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa" programme under grant SEV-2017-0709. RAH, RCC, DMM, SPP, and AV acknowledge the support of the NASA Heliophysics Division, Solar Orbiter Collaboration Office under IAT NNG09EK11I. JEP acknowledges grant UKRI/STFC ST/N000692/1. All French involvements are supported by CNES and CNRS. DV is supported by the STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship ST/P003826/1 and STFC Consolidated Grant ST/S000240/1. The authors thank the referee for her constructive comments and suggestions, which led to the substantial improvement of this paper.

A polytropic process describes the transition of a fluid from one state to another through a specific relationship between the fluid density and temperature. The value of the polytropic index that governs this relationship determines the heat transfer and the effective degrees of freedom during the process. In this study, we analyze solar wind proton plasma measurements, obtained by the Faraday cup instrument on-board Parker Solar Probe. We examine the large-scale variations of the proton plasma density and temperature within the inner heliosphere explored by the spacecraft. We also address a polytropic behavior in the density and temperature fluctuations in short-time intervals, which we analyze in order to derive the effective polytropic index of small time-scale processes. The large-scale variations of the solar wind proton density and temperature which are associated with the plasma expansion through the heliosphere, follow a polytropic model with a polytropic index ~5/3. On the other hand, the short time-scale fluctuations which may be associated with turbulence, follow a model with a larger polytropic index. We investigate possible correlations between the polytropic index of short time-scale fluctuations and the plasma speed, plasma beta, and the magnetic field direction. We discuss the scenario of mechanisms including energy transfer or mechanisms that restrict the particle effective degrees of freedom., 20 pages, 9 figures

We compare Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observations of Jupiter during 2007 with a rich multi-instrument data set including upstream in situ solar wind measurements from the New Horizons spacecraft, radio emissions from the Nancay Decametric Array and Wind/Waves, and ultraviolet (UV) observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. New Horizons data revealed two corotating interaction regions (CIRs) impacted Jupiter during these observations. Non-Io decametric bursts and UV emissions brightened together and varied in phase with the CIRs. We characterize three types of X-ray aurorae: hard X-ray bremsstrahlung main emission, pulsed/flared soft X-ray emissions, and a newly identified dim flickering (varying on short time scales, but quasi-continuously present) aurora. For most observations, the X-ray aurorae were dominated by pulsed/flaring emissions, with ion spectral lines that were best fit by iogenic plasma. However, the brightest X-ray aurora was coincident with a magnetosphere expansion. For this observation, the aurorae were produced by both flickering emission and erratic pulses/flares. Auroral spectral models for this observation required the addition of solar wind ions to attain good fits, suggesting solar wind entry into the outer magnetosphere or directly into the pole for this particularly bright observation. X-ray bremsstrahlung from high energy electrons was only bright for one observation, which was during a forward shock. This bremsstrahlung was spatially coincident with bright UV main emission (power > 1 TW) and X-ray ion spectral line dusk emission, suggesting closening of upward and downward current systems during the shock. Otherwise, the bremsstrahlung was dim, and UV main emission power was also lower (

The velocities of space plasma particles, often follow kappa distribution functions. The kappa index, which labels and governs these distributions, is an important parameter in understanding the plasma dynamics. Space science missions often carry plasma instruments on board which observe the plasma particles and construct their velocity distribution functions. A proper analysis of the velocity distribution functions derives the plasma bulk parameters, such as the plasma density, speed, temperature, and kappa index. Commonly, the plasma bulk density, velocity, and temperature are determined from the velocity moments of the observed distribution function. Interestingly, recent studies demonstrated the calculation of the kappa index from the speed (kinetic energy) moments of the distribution function. Such a novel calculation could be very useful in future analyses and applications. This study examines the accuracy of the specific method using synthetic plasma proton observations by a typical electrostatic analyzer. We analyze the modeled observations in order to derive the plasma bulk parameters, which we compare with the parameters we used to model the observations in the first place. Through this comparison, we quantify the systematic and statistical errors in the derived moments, and we discuss their possible sources.

Electrostatic analysers measure the flux of plasma particles in velocity space and determine their velocity distribution function. There are occasions when science objectives require high time-resolution measurements, and the instrument operates in short measurement cycles, sampling only a portion of the velocity distribution function. One such high-resolution measurement strategy consists of sampling the two-dimensional pitch-angle distributions of the plasma particles, which describes the velocities of the particles with respect to the local magnetic field direction. Here, we investigate the accuracy of plasma bulk parameters from such high-resolution measurements. We simulate electron observations from the Solar Wind Analyser&rsquo, s (SWA) Electron Analyser System (EAS) on board Solar Orbiter. We show that fitting analysis of the synthetic datasets determines the plasma temperature and kappa index of the distribution within 10% of their actual values, even at large heliocentric distances where the expected solar wind flux is very low. Interestingly, we show that although measurement points with zero counts are not statistically significant, they provide information about the particle distribution function which becomes important when the particle flux is low. We also examine the convergence of the fitting algorithm for expected plasma conditions and discuss the sources of statistical and systematic uncertainties.

The ion sensor of the Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms (ASPERA-3) experiment detects accelerated ions during pulses of radio emissions from the powerful topside sounder: the Mars Advan ...

In late 2016, the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) observed an enhancement of hydrogen energetic neutral atom (ENA) flux in ∼20° south from the nose direction. This enhancement was a consequence of an abrupt increase of the solar wind (SW) dynamic pressure observed at 1 au in late 2014. In subsequent years, the increased flux of 4.3 keV ENAs was observed at higher latitudes filling in the heliosheath, in ENAs at lower energies, and the Ribbon flux. We observe that the rapid increase of SW pressure occurs every solar cycle (SC) from the beginning of the regular in situ SW measurements in the ecliptic plane. The SW pressure pulse happens about 4.7 yr from the beginning of each SC, it is during the maximum phase of solar activity, and repeats with a period of ∼10.2 yr. These repeating pulses of the SW pressure can cause periodic SC variations of the ENA production in the heliosheath. We follow McComas et al. results for the relation between SW pressure increase and ENA flux enhancement to investigate the periodic SW pressure increases and their consequences for the heliosphere. Our study of time delay between the cause (pressure pulse at 1 au) and the consequence (ENA enhancement) show that IBEX observed in 2009–2011 remnants of the SW pressure pulse that happened during the maximum of SC 23.

The highly varying plasma environment around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko inspired an upgrade of the ion mass spectrometer (Rosetta Plasma Consortium Ion Composition Analyzer) with new operation ...

The Rosetta spacecraft studied the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko for nearly two years. The Ion Composition Analyzer instrument on board Rosetta observed the positive ion distributions in the environment of the comet during the mission. A portion of the comet's neutral coma is expected to get ionized, depending on the comet's activity and position relative to the Sun, and the newly created ions are picked up and accelerated by the solar wind electric field, while the solar wind flow is deflected in the opposite direction. This interaction, known as the mass-loading mechanism, was previously studied by comparing the bulk flow direction of both the solar wind protons and the accelerated cometary ions with respect to the direction of the magnetic and the convective solar wind electric field. In this study, we show that energy–angle dispersion is occasionally observed. We report two types of dispersion: one where the observed motion is consistent with ions gyrating in the local magnetic field and another where the energy–angle dispersion is opposite to that expected from gyration in the local magnetic field. Given that the cometary ion gyro-radius in the undisturbed solar wind magnetic and electric field is expected to be too large to be detected in this way, our observations indicate that the local electric field might be significantly smaller than that of the undisturbed solar wind. We also discuss how the energy–angle dispersion, which is not consistent with gyration, may occur due to spatially inhomogeneous densities and electric fields.

We analyze plasma ion observations from the Solar Wind Around Pluto instrument on New Horizons as it traveled back through the dusk flank of the Jovian magnetotail from ~600 to more than 2500 Jovian radii behind the planet. We find that at all distances, light ions (mostly protons) dominate the heavy ions (S++ and O+) that are far more abundant in the near Jupiter plasma disk and that were expected to be the primary ions filling the Jovian magnetotail. This key new observation might indicate that heavy ions are confined closer to the equator than the spacecraft trajectory or a substantial addition of light ions via reconnection and/or mixing along the magnetopause boundary. However, because we find no evidence for acceleration of the tail plasma with distance, a more likely explanation seems to be that the heavy ions are preferentially released down the dawn flank of the magnetotail. Perhaps, this occurs as a part of the process where flux tubes, after expanding as they rotate across the near‐tail region, need to pull back inward in order to fit within the dawnside of the magnetopause. A second major finding of this study is that there are two dominant periods of the plasma structures in the Jovian magnetotail: 3.53 (0.18 full width at half maximum (FWHM)) and 5.35 (0.38 FWHM) days. Remarkably, the first of these is identical within the errors to Europa's orbital period (3.55 days). Both of these results should provide important new fodder for Jovian magnetospheric theories and lead to a better understanding of Jupiter's magnetosphere.

A Monte Carlo procedure is presented to calculate the solid angle subtended between a HPGe collimated detector and a PWR 17 x 17 fuel assembly. Self-shielding within the assembly is assessed in the case of gamma rays encountered in gamma spectroscopy of spent nuclear fuel. Self-shielding renders a non-uniform 3-D distribution of the radioactivity within the assembly whose extend depends on gamma ray energies of interest. Hence, the solid angle is reduced to an effective one for each of the different energies of interest.

Solar Orbiter will observe the Sun and the inner heliosphere to study the connections between solar activity, coronal structure, and the origin of the solar wind. The plasma instruments on board Solar Orbiter will determine the three-dimensional velocity distribution functions of the plasma ions and electrons with high time resolution. The analysis of these distributions will determine the plasma bulk parameters, such as density, velocity, and temperature. This paper examines the effects of short-time-scale plasma variations on particle measurements and the estimated bulk parameters of the plasma. For the purpose of this study, we simulate the expected observations of solar wind protons, taking into account the performance of the Proton-Alpha Sensor (PAS) on board Solar Orbiter. We particularly examine the effects of Alfv\'enic and slow-mode-like fluctuations, commonly observed in the solar wind on timescales of milliseconds to hours, on the observations. We do this by constructing distribution functions from modeled observations and calculate their statistical moments in order to derive plasma bulk parameters. The comparison between the derived parameters with the known input allows us to estimate the expected accuracy of Solar Orbiter proton measurements in the solar wind under typical conditions. We find that the plasma fluctuations due to these turbulence effects have only minor effects on future SWA-PAS observations

Kinetic Alfven waves (KAWs) are the short-wavelength extension of the magnetohydrodynamics Alfven-wave branch in the case of highly oblique propagation with respect to the background magnetic field. Observations of space plasma show that small-scale turbulence is mainly KAW-like. We apply two theoretical approaches, a collisional two-fluid theory and a collisionless linear kinetic theory, to obtain predictions for the KAW polarizations depending on βp (the ratio of the proton thermal pressure to the magnetic pressure) at the ion gyroscale in terms of fluctuations in density, bulk velocity, and pressure. We perform a wavelet analysis of Magnetospheric Multiscale magnetosheath measurements and compare the observations with both theories. We find that the two-fluid theory predicts the observations better than the kinetic theory, suggesting that the small-scale KAW-like fluctuations exhibit a fluid-like behavior in the magnetosheath although the plasma is weakly collisional. We also present predictions for the KAW polarizations in the inner heliosphere that are testable with Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter.