Fe‐rich solar energetic particle events during solar minimum

During the first 10 months of WIND observations, we have detected several time periods with energetic particle abundances that are characteristic of impulsive flares: enrichments in the ³He isotope, and in heavy ions compared to the corona. Using the Supra‐Thermal through Energetic Particle sensor on WIND, we find that at ∼100 keV/nucleon these events typically arrive in sequences of multiple events when the spacecraft is magnetically connected to an active region at western solar longitudes, preceding the arrival of a high speed solar wind stream. During recurrent high speed solar wind streams with their associated flux enhancements Fe‐rich events are seldom seen: almost all of the events occur on days with solar wind speeds <450 km/sec. The impulsive events we observe arrive at a rate of ∼30 events/year at solar minimum for energies ≥120 keV/nucleon. This rate is comparable to upper limits placed on the observed rate of higher energy ³He‐rich events in the last solar minimum with measurements from ISEE‐3.