Electron acceleration by shocks in the corona and solar wind

George A. Dulk

Abtract

We present evidence of acceleration of electrons at type II-emitting shock fronts in the corona. Some of the electrons travel outward along open magnetic field lines and produce shock-accelerated type III bursts along their paths, frequently to 1~AU. The evidence is contained in many dynamic spectra with small or no gaps: from ground-based spectrographs covering part or all of the range from about 10 MHz to 1800 MHz, and Wind spacecraft spectrographs covering the range below 13.8 MHz. The drift rates of the shock-accelerated type III bursts are similar to those of normal type III bursts, implying that the type III-producing electrons have speeds of order 0.1 c, or energies of order 3 keV.
 
 

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