An Alternative Interpretation of Impulsive SEP Events Occurring on 1999 January 9–10

Abstract

Abstract We have examined two impulsive solar energetic particle events that occurred on 1999 January 9–10 (earlier event A and later event B). Both events showed earlier velocity dispersion and later intensity dropout of ions. In particular, in event A, the dropout repeated five times. Through the onset time analysis of solar particles, we find that only at higher energies (>0.2 MeV nucleon−1 for heavy ions and >2.8 keV for electrons) can the analysis provide a consistent path length of ions and electrons. The path length in event A is larger than that in event B. In contrast, at lower energies, the analysis fails to predict the distribution of first arrival of solar particles. The divergence between observation and prediction would increase if the interplanetary scattering of ions were taken into account. We then focus on the lower-energy region, where a negative correlation of ion intensities with plasma β is displayed. We have found that the repeated dropout of ions can be caused by the magnetic reconnection acceleration in the solar wind. In addition, we have discovered an isolated proton dropout event in which a sharply anisotropic pitch-angle distribution of low-energy electrons is also seen. Our observation is consistent with the prediction of Tautz et al. that a minimum power spectral density component parallel to the magnetic field can reduce the magnetic mirroring effect, preventing electron scattering through 90°.