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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 100, NO. A1, PAGES 3–11, 1995

Mirroring of Fast Solar Flare Electrons on a Downstream Corotating Interaction Region

K. A. Anderson

Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley


J. Sommers

Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley


R. P. Lin

Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley


M. Pick

Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France


P. Chaizy

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Space Science Department, Chilton, United Kingdom


N. Murphy

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California


E. J. Smith

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California


J. L. Phillips

Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico


Abstract

We discuss an example of confinement of fast solar electrons by a discrete solar wind-interplanetary magnetic field structure on February 22, 1991. The structure is about 190,000 km in width and is clearly defined by changes in the direction of the magnetic field at the Ulysses spacecraft. This structure carries electrons moving toward the Sun as well as away from the Sun. A loss cone in the angular distribution of the fast electrons shows that mirroring, presumably magnetic, takes place downstream from the spacecraft. Following passage of this narrow structure, the return flux vanishes for 21 min after which time the mirroring resumes and persists for several hours. We identify the enhanced magnetic field region lying downstream from the Ulysses spacecraft that is responsible for the mirroring to be a corotating stream interaction region. Backstreaming suprathermal electron measurements by the Los Alamos National Laboratory plasma experiment on the Ulysses spacecraft support this interpretation.

Received 11 April 1994; accepted 6 July 1994.

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Citation: Anderson, K. A., J. Sommers, R. P. Lin, M. Pick, P. Chaizy, N. Murphy, E. J. Smith, and J. L. Phillips (1995), Mirroring of Fast Solar Flare Electrons on a Downstream Corotating Interaction Region, J. Geophys. Res., 100(A1), 3–11.