SH049-0023
Small Electron Events Observed by Parker Solar Probe/ISʘIS During Encounter 2

Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Poster
J. Grant Mitchell1,2, Georgia Adair de Nolfo2, Matthew E Hill3, Eric R Christian4, David J McComas5, Nathan Schwadron6, Mark E Wiedenbeck7, Stuart D Bale8, Anthony W Case9, Christina Cohen10, Colin Joyce5, Justin Christophe Kasper11, Allan Wayne Labrador12, Richard A Leske13, Robert J MacDowall14, Richard Mewaldt15, Donald G Mitchell3, Marc Pulupa16, Ian G Richardson17, Michael Louis Stevens9 and Jamey R Szalay5, (1)George Washington University, Department of Physics, Washington, DC, United States, (2)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States, (4)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (5)Princeton University, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton, NJ, United States, (6)University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (7)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (8)University of California Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States, (9)Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA, United States, (10)Caltech, Pasadena, CA, United States, (11)University of Michigan, Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (12)Mail Code 290-17, Pasadena, CA, United States, (13)CALTECH, Pasadena, CA, United States, (14)NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States, (15)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (16)Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (17)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Heliophysics Science Division, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Abstract:
The current understanding of the characteristics of energetic electron events in the inner heliosphere is inferred almost entirely from observations made by spacecraft located at 1 AU. Previous observations within 1 AU of the Sun, by the Helios spacecraft at ∼0.3-1 AU, indicate the presence of electron events that are not detected at 1 AU or may have merged during transport from the Sun. Parker Solar Probe’s proximity to the Sun at perihelion provides an opportunity to make the closest measurements yet of energetic electron events. We present an overview of measurements of energetic electrons between ∼17 keV and ∼1 MeV made by the Parker Solar Probe Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISʘIS) during Encounter 2 (2019 March 31-April 10 with perihelion of ~0.17 AU), including several small energetic electron events. We examine these events in the context of the electromagnetic and solar wind environment measured by the FIELDS and SWEAP instruments on Parker Solar Probe. We find most of these electron enhancements to be associated with type III radio emissions that reach the local plasma frequency and one enhancement that appears to be primarily associated with abrupt changes in the local magnetic field. Together, these associations suggest that these events are indeed the first measurements of energetic electron events within 0.2 AU.
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