Solar Energetic Particles

Born and raised in South Florida, Don Reames received his university education, leading in 1964 to a PhD in Nuclear Physics, at the University of California at Berkeley.  He then joined a group at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland using sounding rockets and balloons to study galactic cosmic rays and energetic particles from the Sun.  He subsequently used data from experiments on the Gemini, IMP, ISEE, Helios, Voyager, Wind and STEREO missions, as well as many related solar missions, to study those particles and their origins more extensively.  He retired from NASA in 2003 to assume an Emeritus position, but also soon joined the University of Maryland in College Park to become a Senior Research Scientist.  His honors include the 2012 George Ellery Hale Prize from the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society for his work on the composition and transport of solar energetic particles, and in 2001 he receivedGoddard’s John C. Lindsay Memorial Award for Space Science for his work with solar 3He-rich events.

• Preface.- Introducing the Sun and SEPs.- A Turbulent History.- Distinguishing the Sources.- Impulsive SEP Events.- Gradual SEP Events.- High Energies and Radiation Effects.- Measurements of SEPs.- Elemental Abundances and FIP: SEPs, The Corona and the Solar Wind.- Hydrogen Abundances and Shock Waves.- Summary and Conclusions.

“Donald V. Reames presents a clear contemporary account of observational and theoretical studies of the principal families of solar energetic particles (SEPs) … . A delightful sense that this lively presentation is drawn from Reames’ decades of experimental investigations of SEPs pervades the book. … This excellent primer by Reames is a thorough account of SEP events with parallel discussions of the solar wind. It deserves to be read by stellar astronomers.” (David L. Lambert, The Observatory, Vol. 142 (1287), April, 2022)