Browsing by Author "Medrano-Balboa, Rene Adalid"

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    Solar plasma disturbance observed by a suprathermal ion detector on the moon
    (1972) Medrano-Balboa, Rene Adalid; Freeman, John W., Jr.
    An interplanetary plasma disturbance was observed from the Moon by the Rice University Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment (SIDE) on November 19, 1970 starting at 00h 16min 37sec U.T. The time of observation after the start of the disturbance was 130 minutes. The energy range covered by the detector is from 10 eV to 3500 eV in 20 steps. Major particle flux enhancements are found to be between energies 250 eV and 1000 eV. Fluxes at other energies are relatively unaffected. The detectors were pointing at 26° from the Sun's radial direction, the usual direction of the solar wind plasma flow. The gross structure of the event consists of two major enhancements in both the particle fluxes and velocities. The first enhancement included the initial 78 minutes, and was immediately followed by the second enhancement. Both enhancements may correspond to 2 solar flares from the same heliographic location. Significant flux enhancements in the fine structure are found to be density enhancements. These enhancements appeared many times in the first 78 minutes and less often in the rest of the observing time. Random variations in both flux and velocity in the last 30 minutes of the data was observed. Secondary peaks appear in the differential energy spectra, most of which are tentatively identified as a-particles. The locations of these peaks appear to correlate with the valleys between flux enhancements of the fine structure. Other secondary peaks at M/Z = 4 are suggested to indicate the presence of 4He+.