Characteristics of solar wind suprathermal halo electrons

Abstract

A suprathermal halo population of electrons is ubiquitous in space plasmas, as evidence of their departure from thermal equilibrium even in the absence of anisotropies. The origin, properties, and implications of this population, however, are poorly known. We provide a comprehensive description of solar wind halo electrons in the ecliptic, contrasting their evolutions with heliospheric distance in the slow and fast wind streams. At relatively low distances less than 1 AU, the halo parameters show an anticorrelation with the solar wind speed, but this contrast decreases with increasing distance and may switch to a positive correlation beyond 1 AU. A less monotonic evolution is characteristic of the high-speed winds, in which halo electrons and their properties (e.g., number densities, temperature, plasma beta) exhibit a progressive enhancement already distinguishable at about 0.5 AU. At this point, magnetic focusing of electron strahls becomes weaker and may be counterbalanced by the interactions of electrons with wave fluctuations. This evolution of halo electrons between 0.5 AU and 3.0 AU in the fast winds complements previous results well, indicating a substantial reduction of the strahl and suggesting that significant fractions of strahl electrons and energy may be redistributed to the halo population. On the other hand, properties of halo electrons at low distances in the outer corona suggest a subcoronal origin and a direct implication in the overheating of coronal plasma via velocity filtration.