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3He-Rich Solar Energetic Particles: Solar Sources

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Abstract

3He-rich solar energetic particles (SEPs), showing up to a 10,000-fold abundance enhancement of rare elements like 3He or ultra-heavy nuclei, have been a puzzle for more than 50 years. One reason for the current lack of understanding of 3He-rich SEPs is the difficulty resolving the source regions of these commonly occurring events. Since their discovery, there has been strong evidence that 3He-rich SEP production is associated with flares on the Sun. Anomalous abundances of 3He-rich SEPs have been attributed to a unique acceleration mechanism that must routinely operate at flare sites. Flares associated with 3He-rich SEPs have been often observed in jet-like forms indicating an acceleration in magnetic reconnection involving field lines open to interplanetary space. Owing to a fleet of spacecraft around the Sun, providing a greatly improved resolution of solar imaging observations, 3He-rich SEP sources are now explored in unprecedented detail. This paper outlines the current understanding of 3He-rich SEPs, mainly focusing on their solar sources.

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Acknowledgements

Figures 13, 57 reproduced with the permission of AAS. Figure 8 reprinted with the permission of AIP Publishing. The author thanks Davina Innes and Glenn Mason for the careful reading of the manuscript. The paper also benefit greatly from the discussions at the ISSI International Team ID 425 ‘Origins of 3He-rich SEPs’ led by R. Bučík and J.F. Drake. The work was partly supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant BU 3115/4-1 and NASA grant 80NSSC19K0079.

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Correspondence to Radoslav Bučík.

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Bučík, R. 3He-Rich Solar Energetic Particles: Solar Sources. Space Sci Rev 216, 24 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00650-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00650-5

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