Evolution of the Solar Flare Energetic Electrons in the Inhomogeneous Inner Heliosphere

Abstract

Solar flare accelerated electrons escaping into the interplanetary space and seen as type III solar radio bursts are often detected near the Earth. Using numerical simulations we consider the evolution of energetic electron spectrum in the inner heliosphere and near the Earth. The role of Langmuir wave generation, heliospheric plasma density fluctuations, and expansion of magnetic field lines on the electron peak flux and fluence spectra is studied to predict the electron properties as could be observed by Solar Orbiter and Solar Probe Plus. Considering various energy loss mechanisms we show that the substantial part of the initial energetic electron energy is lost via wave-plasma processes due to plasma inhomogeneity. For the parameters adopted, the results show that the electron spectra changes mostly at the distances before $\sim 20R_{\odot }$. Further into the heliosphere, the electron flux spectra of electrons forms a broken power-law relatively similar to what is observed at 1 AU.

16 pages, 7 figures, Published in Solar Physics

References in corpus (4)

• Nonlinear development of electron-beam-driven weak turbulence in an inhomogeneous plasma
• Dynamics of electron beams in the solar corona plasma with density fluctuations
• Dynamics of electron beams in the inhomogeneous solar corona plasma
• Onsets and spectra of impulsive solar energetic electron events observed near the Earth

Cited by in corpus (12)

• A Review of Solar Type III Radio Bursts
• Large scale simulations of solar type III radio bursts: flux density, drift rate, duration and bandwidth
• Imaging Spectroscopy of Type U and J Solar Radio Bursts with LOFAR
• The Low-High-Low Trend of Type III Radio Burst Starting Frequencies and Solar Flare Hard X-rays
• Langmuir Wave Electric Fields Induced by Electron Beams in the Heliosphere
• Coronal type III radio bursts and their X-ray flare and interplanetary type III counterparts
• Connecting solar flare hard X-ray spectra to in situ electron spectra. A comparison of RHESSI and STEREO/SEPT observations
• Stopping Frequency of Type III Solar Radio Bursts in Expanding Magnetic Flux Tubes
• CoSEE-Cat: A Comprehensive Solar Energetic Electron event Catalogue obtained from combined in situ and remote-sensing observations from Solar Orbiter -- Catalogue description and first statistical results
• Electromagnetic radiation by turbulent, magnetized and randomly inhomogeneous solar radio sources generated by electron beams
• Estimating the total energy content in escaping accelerated solar electron beams
• Solar Electron Beam -- Langmuir Wave Interactions and How They Modify Solar Electron Beam Spectra: Solar Orbiter Observations of a Match Made in the Heliosphere