Sazuna/UAT_keywords huggingface dataset:
On Fabry-Pérot Etalon-based Instruments. III. Instrument Applications. The spectral, imaging, and polarimetric behavior of Fabry-Pérot etalons have an influence on imaging vector magnetograph instruments based on these devices. The impact depends on the optical configuration (collimated or telecentric), on the relative position of the etalon with respect to the polarimeter, on the type of etalon (air-gapped or crystalline), and even on the polarimetric technique to be used (single-beam or dual-beam). In this paper, we evaluate the artificial line-of-sight velocities and magnetic field strengths that arise in etalon-based instruments, attending to the factors mentioned. We differentiate between signals that are implicit to telecentric mounts due to the wavelength dependence of the point-spread function and those emerging in both collimated and telecentric setups from the polarimetric response of birefringent etalons. For the anisotropic case, we consider two possible locations of the etalon—between the modulator and the analyzer or after it—and we include the effect on different channels when dual-beam polarimetry is employed. We also evaluate the impact of the loss of symmetry produced in telecentric mounts due to imperfections in the illumination and/or to a tilt of the etalon relative to the incident beam.

Keywords: Spectropolarimetry, Spectrometers, Spectroscopy, Solar instruments, Polarimeters, Polarimetry
Energetic Particle Increases Associated with Stream Interaction Regions. The Parker Solar Probe was launched on 2018 August 12 and completed its second orbit on 2019 June 19 with perihelion of 35.7 solar radii. During this time, the Energetic Particle Instrument-Hi (EPI-Hi, one of the two energetic particle instruments comprising the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun, IS⊙IS) measured seven proton intensity increases associated with stream interaction regions (SIRs), two of which appear to be occurring in the same region corotating with the Sun. The events are relatively weak, with observed proton spectra extending to only a few MeV and lasting for a few days. The proton spectra are best characterized by power laws with indices ranging from -4.3 to -6.5, generally softer than events associated with SIRs observed at 1 au and beyond. Helium spectra were also obtained with similar indices, allowing He/H abundance ratios to be calculated for each event. We find values of 0.016-0.031, which are consistent with ratios obtained previously for corotating interaction region events with fast solar wind ≤600 km s-1. Using the observed solar wind data combined with solar wind simulations, we study the solar wind structures associated with these events and identify additional spacecraft near 1 au appropriately positioned to observe the same structures after some corotation. Examination of the energetic particle observations from these spacecraft yields two events that may correspond to the energetic particle increases seen by EPI-Hi earlier.

Keywords: Solar energetic particles, Solar activity, Fast solar wind
Plasma Waves near the Electron Cyclotron Frequency in the Near-Sun Solar Wind. Data from the first two orbits of the Sun by Parker Solar Probe reveal that the solar wind sunward of 50 solar radii is replete with plasma waves and instabilities. One of the most prominent plasma wave power enhancements in this region appears near the electron cyclotron frequency (fce). Most of this wave power is concentrated in electric field fluctuations near 0.7 fce and fce, with strong harmonics of both frequencies extending above fce. At least two distinct, often concurrent, wave modes are observed, preliminarily identified as electrostatic whistler-mode waves and electron Bernstein waves. Wave intervals range in duration from a few seconds to hours. Both the amplitudes and number of detections of these near-fce waves increase significantly with decreasing distance to the Sun, suggesting that they play an important role in the evolution of electron populations in the near-Sun solar wind. Correlations are found between the detection of these waves and properties of solar wind electron populations, including electron core drift, implying that these waves play a role in regulating the heat flux carried by solar wind electrons. Observation of these near-fce waves is found to be strongly correlated with near-radial solar wind magnetic field configurations with low levels of magnetic turbulence. A scenario for the growth of these waves is presented, which implies that regions of low-turbulence near-radial magnetic field are a prominent feature of the solar wind structure near the Sun.

Keywords: Space plasmas, Solar energetic particles, Solar wind, Solar physics, Solar particle emission
Electrons in the Young Solar Wind: First Results from the Parker Solar Probe. The Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons experiment on the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission measures the three-dimensional electron velocity distribution function. We derive the parameters of the core, halo, and strahl populations utilizing a combination of fitting to model distributions and numerical integration for ∼100,000 electron distributions measured near the Sun on the first two PSP orbits, which reached heliocentric distances as small as ∼0.17 au. As expected, the electron core density and temperature increase with decreasing heliocentric distance, while the ratio of electron thermal pressure to magnetic pressure (βe) decreases. These quantities have radial scaling consistent with previous observations farther from the Sun, with superposed variations associated with different solar wind streams. The density in the strahl also increases; however, the density of the halo plateaus and even decreases at perihelion, leading to a large strahl/halo ratio near the Sun. As at greater heliocentric distances, the core has a sunward drift relative to the proton frame, which balances the current carried by the strahl, satisfying the zero-current condition necessary to maintain quasi-neutrality. Many characteristics of the electron distributions near perihelion have trends with solar wind flow speed, βe, and/or collisional age. Near the Sun, some trends not clearly seen at 1 au become apparent, including anticorrelations between wind speed and both electron temperature and heat flux. These trends help us understand the mechanisms that shape the solar wind electron distributions at an early stage of their evolution.

Keywords: Slow solar wind, Solar physics, Solar wind
Magnetic Connectivity of the Ecliptic Plane within 0.5 au: Potential Field Source Surface Modeling of the First Parker Solar Probe Encounter. We compare magnetic field measurements taken by the FIELDS instrument on board Parker Solar Probe (PSP) during its first solar encounter to predictions obtained by potential field source surface (PFSS) modeling. Ballistic propagation is used to connect the spacecraft to the source surface. Despite the simplicity of the model, our results show striking agreement with PSP's first observations of the heliospheric magnetic field from ∼0.5 au (107.5 R⊙) down to 0.16 au (35.7 R⊙). Further, we show the robustness of the agreement is improved both by allowing the photospheric input to the model to vary in time, and by advecting the field from PSP down to the PFSS model domain using in situ PSP/Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons measurements of the solar wind speed instead of assuming it to be constant with longitude and latitude. We also explore the source surface height parameter (RSS) to the PFSS model, finding that an extraordinarily low source surface height (1.3-1.5 R⊙) predicts observed small-scale polarity inversions, which are otherwise washed out with regular modeling parameters. Finally, we extract field line traces from these models. By overlaying these on extreme ultraviolet images we observe magnetic connectivity to various equatorial and mid-latitude coronal holes, indicating plausible magnetic footpoints and offering context for future discussions of sources of the solar wind measured by PSP.

Keywords: Open source software, Heliosphere, Solar wind, Interplanetary magnetic fields, Solar magnetic fields, Solar corona, Magnetic fields
The Role of Alfvén Wave Dynamics on the Large-scale Properties of the Solar Wind: Comparing an MHD Simulation with Parker Solar Probe E1 Data. During Parker Solar Probe's first orbit, the solar wind plasma was observed in situ closer than ever before, the perihelion on 2018 November 6 revealing a flow that is constantly permeated by large-amplitude Alfvénic fluctuations. These include radial magnetic field reversals, or switchbacks, that seem to be a persistent feature of the young solar wind. The measurements also reveal a very strong, unexpected, azimuthal velocity component. In this work, we numerically model the solar corona during this first encounter, solving the MHD equations and accounting for Alfvén wave transport and dissipation. We find that the large-scale plasma parameters are well reproduced, allowing the computation of the solar wind sources at Probe with confidence. We try to understand the dynamical nature of the solar wind to explain both the amplitude of the observed radial magnetic field and of the azimuthal velocities.

Keywords: Magnetohydrodynamics, Solar wind, Solar physics, Alfven waves, Magnetohydrodynamical simulations
WISPR Imaging of a Pristine CME. The Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR) on board the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observed a coronal mass ejection (CME) on 2018 November 1, the first day of the initial PSP encounter. The speed of the CME, approximately 200-300 km s-1 in the WISPR field of view, is typical of slow, streamer blowout CMEs. This event was also observed by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO) coronagraphs. WISPR and LASCO view remarkably similar structures that enable useful cross-comparison between the two data sets as well as stereoscopic imaging of the CME. An analysis is extended to lower heights by linking the white-light observations to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, which reveal a structure that erupts more than a full day earlier before the CME finally gathers enough velocity to propagate outward. This EUV feature appears as a brightness enhancement in cooler temperatures, such as 171 Å, but as a cavity in nominal coronal temperatures, such as 193 Å. By comparing this circular, dark feature in 193 Å to the dark, white-light cavity at the center of the eruption in WISPR and LASCO, this is one coherent structure is seen to exist prior to the eruption in the low corona before entering the heliosphere and likely corresponds to the core of the magnetic flux rope. It is also believed that the relative weakness of the event contributed to the clarity of the flux rope in WISPR, as the CME did not experience impulsive forces or strong interaction with external structures that can lead to more complex structural evolution.

Keywords: Solar prominences, Heliosphere, The Sun, Solar corona, Solar coronal mass ejections
Identification of Magnetic Flux Ropes from Parker Solar Probe Observations during the First Encounter. The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observed an interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) event during its first orbit around the Sun, among many other events. This event is analyzed by applying a wavelet analysis technique to obtain the reduced magnetic helicity, cross helicity, and residual energy, the first two of which are magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) invariants. Our results show that the ICME, as a large-scale magnetic flux rope, possesses high magnetic helicity, very low cross helicity, and highly negative residual energy, thus pointing to a magnetic fluctuation dominated structure. Using the same technique, we also search for small-scale coherent magnetic flux rope structures during the period from 2018 October 22 to November 21, which are intrinsic to quasi-two-dimensional MHD turbulence in the solar wind. Multiple structures with durations between 8 and 300 minutes are identified from PSP in situ spacecraft measurements. The location and scales of these structures are characterized by wavelet spectrograms of the normalized reduced magnetic helicity, normalized cross helicity, and normalized residual energy. Transport theory suggests that these small-scale magnetic flux ropes may contribute to the acceleration of charged particles through magnetic reconnection processes, and the dissipation of these structures may be important for understanding the coronal heating processes.

Keywords: Interplanetary turbulence, Solar magnetic fields, Solar magnetic reconnection
The Near-Sun Dust Environment: Initial Observations from Parker Solar Probe. The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) spacecraft has flown into the densest, previously unexplored, innermost region of our solar system's zodiacal cloud. While PSP does not have a dedicated dust detector, multiple instruments on the spacecraft are sensitive to the effects of meteoroid bombardment. Here, we discuss measurements taken during PSP's second orbit and compare them to models of the zodiacal cloud's dust distribution. Comparing the radial impact rate trends and the timing and location of a dust impact to an energetic particle detector, we find the impactor population to be consistent with dust grains on hyperbolic orbits escaping the solar system. Assuming PSP's impact environment is dominated by hyperbolic impactors, the total quantity of dust ejected from our solar system is estimated to be 0.5-10 tons/s. We expect PSP will encounter an increasingly intense impactor environment as its perihelion distance and semimajor axis are decreased.

Keywords: Interplanetary dust, Meteoroids
Morphological Reconstruction of a Small Transient Observed by Parker Solar Probe on 2018 November 5. On 2018 November 5, about 24 hr before the first close perihelion passage of Parker Solar Probe (PSP), a coronal mass ejection (CME) entered the field of view of the inner detector of the Wide-field Imager for Solar PRobe (WISPR) instrument on board PSP, with the northward component of its trajectory carrying the leading edge of the CME off the top edge of the detector about four hours after its first appearance. We connect this event to a very small jetlike transient observed from 1 au by coronagraphs on both the SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and the A component of the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory mission (STEREO-A). This allows us to make the first three-dimensional reconstruction of a CME structure considering both observations made very close to the Sun and images from two observatories at 1 au. The CME may be small and jetlike as viewed from 1 au, but the close-in vantage point of PSP/WISPR demonstrates that it is not intrinsically jetlike but instead has a structure consistent with a flux rope morphology. Based on its appearance in the SOHO and STEREO-A images, the event belongs in the "streamer blob" class of transients, but its kinematic behavior is very unusual, with a more impulsive acceleration than previously studied blobs.

Keywords: Solar coronal transients, Solar K corona, Solar coronal mass ejections
Solar Energetic Particles Produced by a Slow Coronal Mass Ejection at ∼0.25 au. We present an analysis of Parker Solar Probe (PSP) IS⊙IS observations of ∼30-300 keV n-1 ions on 2018 November 11 when PSP was about 0.25 au from the Sun. Five hours before the onset of a solar energetic particle (SEP) event, a coronal mass ejection (CME) was observed by STEREO-A/COR2, which crossed PSP about a day later. No shock was observed locally at PSP, but the CME may have driven a weak shock earlier. The SEP event was dispersive, with higher energy ions arriving before the lower energy ones. Timing suggests the particles originated at the CME when it was at ∼7.4R⊙. SEP intensities increased gradually from their onset over a few hours, reaching a peak, and then decreased gradually before the CME arrived at PSP. The event was weak, having a very soft energy spectrum (-4 to -5 spectral index). The earliest arriving particles were anisotropic, moving outward from the Sun, but later, the distribution was observed to be more isotropic. We present numerical solutions of the Parker transport equation for the transport of 30-300 keV n-1 ions assuming a source comoving with the CME. Our model agrees well with the observations. The SEP event is consistent with ion acceleration at a weak shock driven briefly by the CME close to the Sun, which later dissipated before arriving at PSP, followed by the transport of ions in the interplanetary magnetic field.

Keywords: Solar energetic particles, Interplanetary particle acceleration, Interplanetary shocks
The Enhancement of Proton Stochastic Heating in the Near-Sun Solar Wind. Stochastic heating (SH) is a nonlinear heating mechanism driven by the violation of magnetic moment invariance due to large-amplitude turbulent fluctuations producing diffusion of ions toward higher kinetic energies in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field. It is frequently invoked as a mechanism responsible for the heating of ions in the solar wind. Here, we quantify for the first time the proton SH rate Q\bot at radial distances from the Sun as close as 0.16 au, using measurements from the first two Parker Solar Probe encounters. Our results for both the amplitude and radial trend of the heating rate, Q\bot ∝ r-2.5, agree with previous results based on the Helios data set at heliocentric distances from 0.3 to 0.9 au. Also in agreement with previous results, Q\bot is significantly larger in the fast solar wind than in the slow solar wind. We identify the tendency in fast solar wind for cuts of the core proton velocity distribution transverse to the magnetic field to exhibit a flattop shape. The observed distribution agrees with previous theoretical predictions for fast solar wind where SH is the dominant heating mechanism.

Keywords: Interplanetary turbulence, Space plasmas, Solar wind
Clustering of Intermittent Magnetic and Flow Structures near Parker Solar Probe's First Perihelion—A Partial-variance-of-increments Analysis. During the Parker Solar Probe's (PSP) first perihelion pass, the spacecraft reached within a heliocentric distance of ∼37 R⊙ and observed numerous magnetic and flow structures characterized by sharp gradients. To better understand these intermittent structures in the young solar wind, an important property to examine is their degree of correlation in time and space. To this end, we use the well-tested partial variance of increments (PVI) technique to identify intermittent events in FIELDS and SWEAP observations of magnetic and proton-velocity fields (respectively) during PSP's first solar encounter, when the spacecraft was within 0.25 au from the Sun. We then examine distributions of waiting times (WT) between events with varying separation and PVI thresholds. We find power-law distributions for WT shorter than a characteristic scale comparable to the correlation time of the fluctuations, suggesting a high degree of correlation that may originate in a clustering process. WT longer than this characteristic time are better described by an exponential, suggesting a random memory-less Poisson process at play. These findings are consistent with near-Earth observations of solar wind turbulence. The present study complements the one by Dudok de Wit et al., which focuses on WT between observed "switchbacks" in the radial magnetic field.

Keywords: Magnetohydrodynamics, Interplanetary turbulence, Interplanetary discontinuities, Solar wind, Solar corona
Magnetic Field Kinks and Folds in the Solar Wind. Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observations during its first encounter at 35.7 R⊙ have shown the presence of magnetic field lines that are strongly perturbed to the point that they produce local inversions of the radial magnetic field, known as switchbacks. Their counterparts in the solar wind velocity field are local enhancements in the radial speed, or jets, displaying (in all components) the velocity-magnetic field correlation typical of large amplitude Alfvén waves propagating away from the Sun. Switchbacks and radial jets have previously been observed over a wide range of heliocentric distances by Helios, Wind, and Ulysses, although they were prevalent in significantly faster streams than seen at PSP. Here we study via numerical magnetohydrodynamics simulations the evolution of such large amplitude Alfvénic fluctuations by including, in agreement with observations, both a radial magnetic field inversion and an initially constant total magnetic pressure. Despite the extremely large excursion of magnetic and velocity fields, switchbacks are seen to persist for up to hundreds of Alfvén crossing times before eventually decaying due to the parametric decay instability. Our results suggest that such switchback/jet configurations might indeed originate in the lower corona and survive out to PSP distances, provided the background solar wind is sufficiently calm, in the sense of not being pervaded by strong density fluctuations or other gradients, such as stream or magnetic field shears, that might destabilize or destroy them over shorter timescales.

Keywords: Space plasmas, Magnetohydrodynamics, Solar wind
Seed Population Preconditioning and Acceleration Observed by the Parker Solar Probe. A series of solar energetic particle (SEP) events was observed by the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (IS⊙IS) on the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) during the period from 2019 April 18 through 24. The PSP spacecraft was located near 0.48 au from the Sun on Parker spiral field lines that projected out to 1 au within ∼25° of the near-Earth spacecraft. These SEP events, though small compared to historically large SEP events, were among the largest observed thus far in the PSP mission and provide critical information about the space environment inside 1 au during SEP events. During this period, the Sun released multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs). One of these CMEs observed was initiated on 2019 April 20 at 01:25 UTC, and the interplanetary CME (ICME) propagated out and passed over the PSP spacecraft. Observations by the Electromagnetic Fields Investigation show that the magnetic field structure was mostly radial throughout the passage of the compression region and the plasma that followed, indicating that PSP did not directly observe a flux rope internal to the ICME, consistent with the location of PSP on the ICME flank. Analysis using relativistic electrons observed near Earth by the Electron, Proton and Alpha Monitor on the Advanced Composition Explorer demonstrates the presence of electron seed populations (40-300 keV) during the events observed. The energy spectrum of the IS⊙IS-observed proton seed population below 1 MeV is close to the limit of possible stationary-state plasma distributions out of equilibrium. IS⊙IS observations reveal the enhancement of seed populations during the passage of the ICME, which likely indicates a key part of the preacceleration process that occurs close to the Sun.

Keywords: Solar energetic particles, Solar wind, Solar coronal mass ejections