Coronal and interplanetary transport of solar energetic protons and electrons

Abstract

We present a new method to separate interplanetary and coronal propagation, starting from intensity variations observed by spaceprobes at different heliolongitudes. In general, a decrease in absolute intensities is observed simultaneously with an increase in temporal delays. The coupling of these two effects can be described by Reid's model of coronal diffusion and can in principle be used to determine the two coronal time constants, diffusion time t c and escape time A. In addition, a least-squares fit method is used to determine the parameters of interplanetary transport, assuming a radial dependence as λ(r) = λ0(r/1 AU)b. The method is applied to the two solar events of 27 December, 1977 and 1 January, 1978 which were observed by the spaceprobes Helios 1, Helios 2, and Prognoz 6. Energetic particle data are analysed for 13–27 MeV protons and ∼-0.5 MeV electrons. For the regions in space encountered during these events the mean free path of electrons is smaller than that of protons. Straight interpolation between the two rigidities leads to a rather flat rigidity dependence λ(P) ∼ P n with n = 0.17–0.25. This contradicts the prediction of a constant mean free path or of the transition to scatter-free propagation below about 100 MV rigidity. In three of the four cases the mean free path of 13–27 MeV protons is of the order 0.17 AU, the mean free path of electrons of the order 0.06 AU. For protons we find b ∼- 0.7 for the exponent of the radial variation.