Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Solar physics

Making waves

Nature Physics volume 9, pages 758–759 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

High-cadence images link the phenomena required for particle acceleration at the Sun. A plasmoid-driven shock wave accelerates electrons in intermittent bursts.

Shock waves are a primary mechanism for the acceleration of particles at the Sun and in other astrophysical settings, such as supernovae. Shocks at the Sun and in the heliosphere offer the best chance to investigate the shock particle-acceleration process in detail. Eoin Carley and his co-workers, as they now report in Nature Physics1, have used high-cadence solar images and radio spectroscopy to link together the key elements of particle acceleration at a solar shock wave: a driving plasmoid or coronal mass ejection (CME); a propagating coronal bright front at the leading edge of the CME with an associated metric radio 'type II' burst — the classic signature of a solar shock; and the coronal and interplanetary electrons accelerated at the shock. They present evidence that the shock is quasiperpendicular and attribute the bursty or quasiperiodic nature of the radio emission emanating from the type II burst to a rippled or wavy shock surface.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Coronal mass ejection.

References

  1. Carley, E. P. et al. Nature Phys. 9, 811–816 (2013).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Payne-Scott, R., Yabsley, D. E. & Bolton, J. G. Nature 160, 256–257 (1947).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Moreton, G. E. & Ramsey, H. E. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacific 72, 357 (1960).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Uchida, Y. Sol. Phys. 39, 431–449 (1974).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Thompson, B. J. et al. Geophys. Res. Lett. 25, 2465–2468 (1998).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Warmuth, A., Vršnak, B., Magdalenić, J., Hanslmeier, A. & Otruba, W. Astron. Astrophys. 418, 1117–1129 (2004).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Veronig, A. M., Temmer, M. & Vršnak, B. Astrophys. J. 681, L113–L116 (2008).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Kienreich, I. W., Temmer, M. & Veronig, A. M. Astrophys. J. 703, L118–L122 (2009).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Chen, P. F., Fang, C. & Shibata, K. Astrophys. J. 622, 1202–1210 (2005).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Liu, W. et al. Astrophys. J. 753, 52 (2012).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Patsourakos, S. & Vourlidas, A. Solar Phys. 281, 187–222 (2012).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Tylka, A. J. et al. Astrophys. J. 625, 474–495 (2005).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Rouillard, A. P. et al. Astrophys. J. 752, 44 (2012).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Gopalswamy, N., Nitta, N., Akiyama, S., Mäkelä, P. & Yashiro, S. Astrophys. J. 744, 72 (2012).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Edward W. Cliver is at the Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Sunspot, New Mexico 88349, USA,

    Edward W. Cliver

Authors
  1. Edward W. Cliver
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edward W. Cliver.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cliver, E. Making waves. Nature Phys 9, 758–759 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2787

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2787

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing