SHINE: Studies of ICME-CME Connections and Implications for Heliospheric Topology

首席调查员(PI)建议确定日冕物质抛射(CME)过程的太阳位置，称为“交换重联”，并推断发生这种重联的磁构型的性质。互换重新连接被认为从太阳释放了CME场环路的一英尺，从而减少了它对日光层的贡献。PI计划结合其他地面和空间数据，利用对ICME中单向超热电子的观测(发出单连接场线的信号，而不是发出双连接场环信号的逆流电子)，确定交换重联的潜在地点，然后搜索假想地点附近太阳的X射线和/或极端紫外线图像，以寻找重联事件的证据。她预计，她的结果将测试我们对日冕物质抛射如何离开太阳的理解，并建立在目前CME建模工作的基础上。提出者还希望在解决以下相互关联的问题方面取得决定性进展：缺乏与太阳完全断开的场的特征，行星间日冕物质抛射远距离进入日光层时的交换重联速度，作为双连通场线特征的逆流问题，以及ICME是否有助于磁通量的太阳周期变化。PI将作为博士后研究人员和本科生的导师，重点放在女性参与科学领域。她还将推动太阳、日光圈和星际环境(SIRE)计划的社区建设努力和研究议程。

The Principal Investigator (PI) proposes to identify the solar site of a coronal mass ejection (CME) process called "interchange reconnection" and to deduce properties of the magnetic configuration in which this reconnection occurs. Interchange reconnection is thought to release one foot of a CME field loop from the Sun, thereby reducing the flux it contributes to the heliosphere. The PI plans to identify potential sites of interchange reconnection, using observations of unidirectional suprathermal electrons in ICMEs (which signal singly-connected field lines, as opposed to counterstreaming electrons, which presumably signal doubly-connected field loops) in combination with other ground- and space-based data, and then to search X-ray and/or extreme ultraviolet images of the Sun in the vicinity of the hypothesized sites for evidence of the reconnection event. She expects that her results will test our understanding of how CMEs leave the Sun and build upon the underpinnings of present CME modeling efforts. The proposer also hopes to make definitive progress toward resolving interrelated problems regarding the lack of signatures of fields completely disconnected from the Sun, the rate of interchange reconnection as ICMEs (interplanetary-CMEs) move far out into the heliosphere, the question of counterstreaming as a signature of doubly-connected field lines, and whether ICMEs contribute to the solar cycle variation of magnetic flux.This proposal addresses problems central to understanding the physical processes that control CMEs, the heliospheric magnetic field, and the suprathermal electron populations that thread the field. The PI will serve as a mentor to a postdoctoral researcher and to undergraduate students, with emphasis on the participation of females in the sciences. She will also promote the community building efforts and research agenda of the Solar, Heliospheric, and Interplanetary Environment (SHINE) program.