Helium isotopes in an aurora

Bühler, F.; Axford, W. I.; Chivers, H.J.A.; Marti, K.

doi:10.1029/ja081i001p00111

Cited by 30 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…This air, locally mixed with air downward, may tentatively produce a high 3 He/ 4 He ratio. This mechanism is associated with the formation of auroras and is called Auroral Helium Precipitation (Buhler et al, 1976), and it may explain excess 3 He observed in this work. Other sources include the decay of tritium produced by nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, but it is thought to be negligible in amount (Lupton and Evans, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…1.5 × 10 14 atoms/cm 2 (Ozima and Podosek, 1983), it would result in a flux of 190 atoms/cm 2 sec. This value is about 40 times greater than the steady state auroral precipitation flux of 5 atoms/cm 2 sec (Buhler et al, 1976). In other words, even if a solar flare of this scale were to occur once every two years, it would be 20 times larger than the normal auroral precipitation flux.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…The positive helium isotope ratio anomaly lasted from September 13 th to September 27 th with an average deviation of 5.5 ± 1.7 ‰ calculated from the six anomalous samples. The area of the Earth corresponding to the polar regions where auroral precipitation is effective is estimated to be about 3 % of the total area of the Earth (Buhler et al, 1976). If the 5.5 ‰ 3 He excess is globally diffused and diluted, then the 3 He/ 4 He ratio of the entire atmosphere would increase by 0.165 ‰ by only one large event.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sun flare activity may solve unknown source of helium-3 in the atmosphere

Sano¹,

Pinti²,

Escobar-Nakajima³

et al. 2022

Geochem. Persp. Let.

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Helium abundance measurements in the atmosphere suggest a supply of crustal 4 He from natural gas extraction since the beginning of the 20 th century. However, the 3 He/ 4 He ratio of air appears near constant, which calls for an unknown source of 3 He to compensate for the contribution of anthropogenic 4 He to the atmosphere. Knowing the origin and cycle of 3 He in the atmosphere is important, being also an important resource in nuclear fusion reactors and for cryogenic applications. Here, we report 3 He/ 4 He variations measured during the massive X9.3 solar flare event of September 6 th 2017 in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard islands, near the North Pole. The solar wind was expected to reach the Earth on September 8 th . A total of five samples, collected immediately after the solar flare event, showed an excess of 3 He, up to 5.5 ± 1.7 ‰ (δ 3 He), compared to the terrestrial atmospheric isotopic value. If the solar wind, enhanced by solar flares, was fed into the atmosphere by auroral precipitation, it would increase the polar atmospheric helium isotope ratio. The helium would then be diluted by diffusion and the excess 3 He would rapidly disappear. Thus, 3 He excess supplied by these events may keep the atmospheric 3 He/ 4 He constant.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Sun flare activity may solve unknown source of helium-3 in the atmosphere

Sano¹,

Pinti²,

Escobar-Nakajima³

et al. 2022

Geochem. Persp. Let.

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“…Furthermore, the helium in the solar wind is primarily doubly charged while that in the ionosphere is singly charged. Biihler et al (1972Biihler et al ( , 1976 and Axford et al (1972) measured helium isotopes and derived the 3He/4He ratio in aurora by exposing foils to particle fluxes on two rocket flights. The foils were recovered and were subsequently analyzed by heating them in the source of a laboratory mass spectrometer.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heavy ions in the magnetosphere

Shelley¹

1979

Space Sci Rev

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For purposes of this review heavy ions include all species of ions having a mass per unit charge of 2 AMU or greater. The discussion is limited primarily to ions in the energy range between 100 eV and 100 keV. Prior to the discovery in 1972 of large fluxes of energetic O + ions precipitating into the auroral Zone during geomagnetic storms, the only reported magnetosphere ion species observed in this energy range were helium and hydrogen. More recently O + and He + have been identified as significant components of the storm time ring current, suggesting that an ionosphere source may be involved in the generation of the fluxes responsible for this current. Mass spectrometer measurements on board the $3-3 satellite have shown that ionosphe,-ic ions in the auroral zone are frequently accelerated upward along geomagnetic field lines to several keV energy in the altitude region from 5000 km to greater than 8000 km. These observations also show evidence for acceleration perpendicular to the magnetic field and thus cannot be explained by a parallel electric field alone. This auroral acceleration region is most likely the source for the magnetospheric heavy ions of ionospheric origin, but further acceleration would probably be required to bring them to characteristic ring current energies. Recent observations from the GEOS-1 spacecraft combined with earlier results suggest comparable contributions to the hot magnetopheric plasma from the solar wind and the ionosphere.

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“…Such an experiment was later on carried out during the Apollo 11 and 12 missions, when aluminum foils (mounted on a pole stuck in the lunar soil) were exposed to flux of solar wind particles from the surface of the Moon [11]. In 1972 the foil sampling technique was used again to measure the noble gas fluxes in the auroral primary radiation [12,13]. This time aluminum and platinum foils were mounted on two Nike-Tomahawk rockets that were launched directly into bright auroras.…”

Section: The Foil Collection Technique: the Collisa Experiments On Mirmentioning

confidence: 99%

Galactic abundances: Report of working group 3

Klecker¹,

Bothmer²,

Cummings³

et al. 2001

AIP Conference Proceedings

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Abstract. We summarize the various methods and their limitations and strengths to derive galactic abundances from in-situ and remote-sensing measurements, both from ground-based observation s and from instruments in space. Because galactic abundances evolve in time and sp ace it is important to obtain information with a variety of different methods covering different regions from the Very Local Insterstellar M edium (VLISM) to the distant galaxy, and different times throughout the evolution of the galaxy. We discuss the study of the present-day VLISM with neutral gas, pickup ions, and Anomalous Cosmic Rays, the study of the local interstellar medium (ISM) at distances < 1.5 kpc utilizing absorption line me asurements in H I clouds, and the study of galactic cosmic rays, sampling contemporary (~ 15 Myr) s ources in the local ISM within a few kiloparsec of the solar system. Solar system abundances, derived from solar abundances and meteorite studies are discussed in several other chapters o f this volume. They provide samples of matter from the ISM from the time of solar system format ion, about 4.5 Gyr ago. The evolution of galactic abundances on longer time scales is discussed in the context of nuclear synthesis in the various contributing stellar objects.

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Helium isotopes in an aurora

Cited by 30 publications

References 32 publications

Sun flare activity may solve unknown source of helium-3 in the atmosphere

Sun flare activity may solve unknown source of helium-3 in the atmosphere

Heavy ions in the magnetosphere

Galactic abundances: Report of working group 3

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