Sources, injection and acceleration of heliospheric ion populations

Abstract

A variety of heliospheric ion populations—from Anomalous Cosmic Rays (ACRs) to particles accelerated in Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs)—have been observed and studied for several decades. It had been commonly assumed that the solar wind was the source for all of these populations, except for the ACRs, and that shock acceleration produced the energetic particles observed, including the ACRs. For the ACRs the source that had been proposed a long time ago was the interstellar gas that penetrates deep into the heliosphere. Recent measurements of the composition and spectra of suprathermal ions, primarily from Ulysses, ACE and Wind, indicate that pickup ions are likely to be an important source not only of the ACRs but for other heliospheric ion populations as well. In particular, the newly discovered “Inner Source” pickup ions may be a significant source for particles accelerated in the inner heliosphere and may also be the seed material for ACR C, Mg, Si and Fe. Furthermore, the omnipresent suprathermal tails seem to tell us that shock acceleration may not be the primary mechanism energizing particles to ∼0.1 MeV in the heliosphere. Explaining the origin of these persistent high velocity tails remains one of our challenges. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.