English

First Solar energetic particles measured on the Lunar far-side

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2021-03-01 v2 Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Space Physics

Abstract

On 2019 May 6, the Lunar Lander Neutron & Dosimetry (LND) Experiment on board the Chang'E-4 on the far-side of the Moon detected its first small solar energetic particle (SEP) event with proton energies up to 21MeV. Combined proton energy spectra are studied based on the LND, SOHO/EPHIN and ACE/EPAM measurements which show that LND could provide a complementary dataset from a special location on the Moon, contributing to our existing observations and understanding of space environment. Velocity dispersion analysis (VDA) has been applied to the impulsive electron event and weak proton enhancement and the results demonstrate that electrons are released only 22 minutes after the flare onset and \sim15 minutes after type II radio burst, while protons are released more than one hour after the electron release. The impulsive enhancement of the in-situ electrons and the derived early release time indicate a good magnetic connection between the source and Earth. However, stereoscopic remote-sensing observations from Earth and STA suggest that the SEPs are associated with an active region nearly 100^\circ away from the magnetic footpoint of Earth. This suggests that the propagation of these SEPs could not follow a nominal Parker spiral under the ballistic mapping model and the release and propagation mechanism of electrons and protons are likely to differ significantly during this event.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2008.03492,
  title  = {First Solar energetic particles measured on the Lunar far-side},
  author = {Zigong Xu and Jingnan Guo and Robert. F. Wimmer-Schweingruber and Johan L. Freiherr von Forstner and Henning Lohf and Yuming Wang and Nina Dresing and Shenyi Zhang and Mei Yang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.03492},
  year   = {2021}
}

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