Transient Structures and Stream Interaction Regions in the Solar Wind: Results from EISCAT Interplanetary Scintillation, STEREO HI and Venus Express ASPERA-4 Measurements

TL;DR

This study combines multiple observational techniques to analyze the evolution of transient solar wind structures and stream interaction regions, revealing their development, interaction, and in-situ detection in interplanetary space.

Contribution

It presents a multi-instrument, multi-resolution approach to studying solar wind transients, linking remote sensing with in-situ measurements for the first time.

Findings

Transient structures range from <10^5 km to >10^6 km.

Stream Interaction Regions can entrain smaller transients.

First in-situ detection of a SIR at Venus.

Abstract

We discuss the detection and evolution of a complex series of transient and quasi-static solar wind structures in the days following the well-known comet 2P / Encke tail disconnection event in April 2007. The evolution of transient solar wind structures ranging in size from < 105 km to > 106 km was characterized using one-minute time resolution observation of Interplanetary Scintillation (IPS) made using the European Incoherent SCA Tter (EISCA T) radar system. Simultaneously, the global structure and evolution of these features was characterized by the Heliospheric Imagers (HI) on the Solar TERrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, placing the IPS observations in context. Of particular interest was the observation of one transient in the slow wind apparently being swept up and entrained by a Stream Interaction Region (SIR). The SIR itself was later detected in-situ at Venus by the Analyser of Space Plasma and Energetic Atoms (ASPERA-4) instrument on the Venus Express (VEX) spacecraft. The availability of such diverse data sources over a range of different time resolutions enables us to develop a global picture of these complex events that would not have been possible if these instruments were used in isolation. We suggest that the range of solar wind transients discussed here maybe the interplanetary counterparts of transient structures previously reported from coronagraph observations and are likely to correspond to transient magnetic structures reported in in-situ measurements in interplanetary space. The results reported here also provide the first indication of heliocentric distances at which transients become entrained.