CORRELATION OF ELECTRON PATH LENGTHS OBSERVED IN THE HIGHLY WOUND OUTER REGION OF MAGNETIC CLOUDS WITH THE SLAB FRACTION OF MAGNETIC TURBULENCE IN THE DISSIPATION RANGE

Abstract

Three magnetic cloud events, in which solar impulsive electron events occurred in their outer region, are employed to investigate the difference of path lengths L 0eIII traveled by non-relativistic electrons from their release site near the Sun to the observer at 1 AU, where L 0eIII = v l × (t l – t III), v l and t l being the velocity and arrival time of electrons in the lowest energy channel (~27 keV) of the Wind/3DP/SST sensor, respectively, and t III being the onset time of type III radio bursts. The deduced L 0eIII value ranges from 1.3 to 3.3 AU. Since a negligible interplanetary scattering level can be seen in both L 0eIII > 3 AU and ~1.2 AU events, the difference in L 0eIII could be linked to the turbulence geometry (slab or two-dimensional) in the solar wind. By using the Wind/MFI magnetic field data with a time resolution of 92 ms, we examine the turbulence geometry in the dissipation range. In our examination, ~6 minutes of sampled subintervals are used in order to improve time resolution. We have found that, in the transverse turbulence, the observed slab fraction is increased with an increasing L 0eIII value, reaching ~100% in the L 0eIII > 3 AU event. Our observation implies that when only the slab spectral component exists, magnetic flux tubes (magnetic surfaces) are closed and regular for a very long distance along the transport route of particles.