Temperature of the Source Plasma in Gradual Solar Energetic Particle Events

Scattering during interplanetary transport of particles during large, “gradual” solar energetic-particle (SEP) events can cause element abundance enhancements or suppressions that depend upon the mass-to-charge ratio [A/Q\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$A/Q$\end{document}] of the ions as an increasing function early in events and a decreasing function of the residual scattered ions later. Since the Q\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$Q$\end{document}-values for the ions depend upon the source plasma temperature [T\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$T$\end{document}], best fits of the power-law dependence of enhancements vs.A/Q\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$A/Q$\end{document} can determine T\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$T$\end{document}. These fits provide a fundamentally new method to determine the most probable value of T\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$T$\end{document} for these events in the energy region 3–10MeVamu−1\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$3\,\mbox{--}\,10~\mbox{MeV}\,\mbox{amu}^{-1}$\end{document}. Complicated variations in the grouping of element enhancements or suppressions match similar variations in A/Q\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$A/Q$\end{document} at the best-fit temperature. We find that fits to the times of increasing and decreasing powers give similar values of T\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$T$\end{document}, in the range of 0.8 – 1.6 MK for 69 % of events, consistent with the acceleration of ambient coronal plasma by shock waves driven out from the Sun by coronal mass ejections (CMEs). However, 24 % of the SEP events studied showed plasma of 2.5 – 3.2 MK, typical of that previously determined for the smaller impulsive SEP events; these particles may be reaccelerated preferentially by quasi-perpendicular shock waves that require a high injection threshold that the impulsive-event ions exceed or simply by high intensities of impulsive suprathermal ions at the shock. The source-temperature distribution of ten higher-energy ground-level events (GLEs) in the sample is similar to that of the other gradual events, at least for SEPs in the energy-range of 3–10MeVamu−1\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$3\,\mbox{--}\,10~\mbox{MeV}\,\mbox{amu}^{-1}$\end{document}. Some events show evidence that a portion of the ions may have been further stripped of electrons before the shock acceleration; such events are smaller and tend to cluster late in the solar cycle.