Insights into the processes of Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) propagation are essential for understanding how solar eruptions affect the radiation environment of near-Earth space. SEP propagation is influenced by turbulent magnetic fields in the solar wind, resulting in stochastic transport of SEPs to Earth. Multi-spacecraft observations suggest that the cross-field propagation shapes the SEP fluxes at Earth strongly. However, modelling SEP cross-field transport as spatial diffusion has been shown to be insufficient without use of unrealistically large cross-field diffusion coefficients. Recent work has shown that the early-time propagation of energetic particles across the mean field direction in turbulent fields is not diffusive, as the particles propagating along meandering field lines. This early-time transport mode results in fast access of the particles across the mean field direction, in agreement with the SEP observations. In this work, we demonstrate the significance of turbulence strength on evolution of the SEP radiation environment near Earth. We calculate the transport parameters with a turbulence transport model, parametrised by the SEP parallel scattering mean free path at 1~AU, $λ_{\parallel}^{*}$, and show that the parallel and cross-field transport are connected, with conditions resulting in slow parallel transport corresponding to wider events. We find a scaling $σ_{ϕ,\, \mathrm{max}}\propto (1/λ_{\parallel}^{*})^{1/4}$ for the Gaussian fitting of the longitudinal distribution of maximum intensities. The longitudes with highest intensities are shifted towards the west for strong scattering conditions. Our results emphasise the importance of understanding both the SEP transport and the interplanetary turbulence conditions for modelling and predicting the SEP radiation environment at Earth.
Propagation of energetic particles across the mean field direction in turbulent magnetic fields is often described as spatial diffusion. Recently, it has been suggested that initially the particles propagate systematically along meandering field lines, and only later reach the time-asymptotic diffusive cross-field propagation. In this paper, we analyse cross-field propagation of 1--100 MeV protons in composite 2D-slab turbulence superposed on a constant background magnetic field, using full-orbit particle simulations, to study the non-diffusive phase of particle propagation with a wide range o…
Current particle transport models describe the propagation of charged particles across the mean field direction in turbulent plasmas as diffusion. However, recent studies suggest that at short time-scales, such as soon after solar energetic particle (SEP) injection, particles remain on turbulently meandering field lines, which results in non-diffusive initial propagation across the mean magnetic field. In this work, we use a new technique to investigate how the particles are displaced from their original field lines, and quantify the parameters of the transition from field-aligned particle pro…
Context. Current solar energetic particle (SEP) propagation models describe the effects of interplanetary plasma turbulence on SEPs as diffusion, using a Fokker-Planck (FP) equation. However, FP models cannot explain the observed fast access of SEPs across the average magnetic field to regions that are widely separated in longitude within the heliosphere without using unrealistically strong cross-field diffusion. Aims. We study whether the recently suggested early non-diffusive phase of SEP propagation can explain the wide SEP events with realistic particle transport parameters. Methods. We us…
Solar energetic particles (SEPs), accelerated during solar eruptions, propagate in turbulent solar wind before being observed with in situ instruments. In order to interpret their origin through comparison with remote-sensing observations of the solar eruption, we thus must deconvolve the transport effects due to the turbulent magnetic fields from the SEP observations. Recent research suggests that the SEP propagation is guided by the turbulent meandering of the magnetic fieldlines across the mean magnetic field. However, the lengthening of the distance the SEPs travel, due to the fieldline me…
Solar energetic particles (SEPs) have been observed to easily spread across heliographic longitudes, and the mechanisms responsible for this behaviour remain unclear. We use full-orbit simulations of a 10 MeV proton beam in a turbulent magnetic field to study to what extent the spread across the mean field can be described as diffusion early in a particle event. We compare the full-orbit code results to solutions of a Fokker-Planck equation including spatial and pitch angle diffusion, and of one including also propagation of the particles along random-walking magnetic field lines. We find that…
One of the earliest indicators of the importance of shock acceleration of solar energetic particles (SEPs) was the broad spatial extent of the "gradual" SEP events produced as the shock waves, driven by wide, fast coronal mass ejections (CMEs), expand across the Sun with cross-field transport mediated by the shocks. Contrasting "impulsive" SEP events, with characteristic enhancements of 3He and of heavy elements, are now associated with magnetic reconnection on open field lines in solar jets. However, large shock waves can also traverse pools of residual impulsive suprathermal ions and jets ca…
We calculate the interplanetary magnetic field path lengths traveled by electrons in solar electron events detected by the WIND 3DP instrument from $1994$ to $2016$. The velocity dispersion analysis method is applied for electrons at energies of $\sim$ $27$ keV to $310$ keV. Previous velocity dispersion analyses employ the onset times, which are often affected by instrumental effects and the pre-existing background flux, leading to large uncertainties. We propose a new method here. Instead of using the peak or onset time, we apply the velocity dispersion analysis to the times that correspond t…
Metric type II solar radio bursts and solar energetic particles (SEPs) are both associated with shock fronts driven by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the solar corona. Recent studies of ground level enhancements (GLEs), regular large solar energetic particle (SEP) events and filament eruption (FE) associated large SEP events have shown that SEP events are organized by spectral index of proton fluence spectra and by the average starting frequencies of the associated type II radio bursts. Both these results indicate a hierarchical relationship between CME kinematics and SEP event properties. I…
Diffusive shock acceleration at collisionless shocks is thought to be the source of many of the energetic particles observed in space. Large-scale spatial variations of the magnetic field has been shown to be important in understanding observations. The effects are complex, so here we consider a simple, illustrative model. Here, we solve numerically the Parker transport equation for a shock in the presence of large-scale sinusoidal magnetic-field variations. We demonstrate that the familiar planar-shock results can be significantly altered as a consequence of large-scale, meandering magnetic l…
We investigate the solar phenomena associated with the origin of the solar energetic particle (SEP) event observed on 2013 April 11 by a number of spacecraft distributed in the inner heliosphere over a broad range of heliolongitudes. We use Extreme UltraViolet (EUV) and white-light coronagraph observations from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and the twin Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory spacecraft (STEREO-A and STEREO-B) to determine the angular extent of the EUV wave and coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with the origin of the S…
The multitude of recent multi-point spacecraft observations of solar energetic particle (SEP) events have made it possible to study the longitudinal distribution of SEPs in great detail. SEPs, even those accelerated during impulsive events, show a much wider than expected longitudinal extent, bringing into question the processes responsible for their transport perpendicular to the local magnetic field. In this paper we examine some aspects of perpendicular transport by including perpendicular diffusion into a numerical SEP transport model that simulates the propagation of impulsively accelerat…
We report observations of a relatively long period of 3He-rich solar energetic particles (SEPs) measured by Solar Orbiter. The period consists of several well-resolved ion injections. The high-resolution STEREO-A imaging observations reveal that the injections coincide with EUV jets/brightenings near the east limb, not far from the nominal magnetic connection of Solar Orbiter. The jets originated in two adjacent, large, and complex active regions as observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory when the regions rotated to the Earth's view. It appears that the sustained ion injections were related…
We revisit a multi-spacecraft study of the element abundances of solar energetic particles (SEPs) in the 23 January 2012 event, where the power-law pattern of enhancements versus the mass-to-charge ratio A/Q for the elements C through Fe was partly disrupted by a break near Mg, which turned out to be an unfortunate distraction. In the current article we find that extending that least-squares fits for C - Fe down to H at A/Q = 1 lends much more credence to the power laws, even though H itself was not included in the fits. We also investigate the extent of an adiabatically invariant "reservoir" …
We model the energetic storm particle (ESP) event of 14 July 2012 using the energetic particle acceleration and transport model named PARADISE, together with the solar wind and coronal mass ejection (CME) model named EUHFORIA. The simulation results illustrate both the capabilities and limitations of the utilised models. We show that the models capture some essential structural features of the ESP event; however, for some aspects the simulations and observations diverge. We describe and, to some extent, assess the sources of errors in the modelling chain of EUHFORIA and PARADISE and discuss ho…
Multi-spacecraft constraints on relativistic solar energetic particle transport in the widespread 28 October 2021 event
National & Kapodistrian University of Athens(雅典国立卡波迪斯特里安大学);Institute for the Management of Information Systems, "Athena" Research Center(雅典研究中心信息管理研究所);Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS), National Observatory of Athens(雅典国家天文台天文学、天体物理学、空间应用和遥感研究所);Space Research Laboratory, University of Turku(图尔库大学空间研究实验室);Centre for Space Research, North-West University(西北大学空间研究中心);National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS)(国家理论与计算科学研究所);The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory(约翰斯·霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室)
Energetic particle-mediated interplanetary shocks observed by Solar Orbiter
European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC)(欧洲空间局(ESA),欧洲空间天文中心(ESAC));Heliospheric Physics Laboratory, Heliophysics Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center(NASA戈达德太空飞行中心,日球物理部,日球物理实验室);Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik(马克斯·普朗克核物理研究所);Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory(约翰斯·霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室);Istituto per la Scienza e Tecnologia dei Plasmi (ISTP), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche(意大利国家研究委员会等离子体科学与技术研究所(ISTP));Department of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University of London(伦敦大学玛丽女王学院物理与天文学系);Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona(亚利桑那大学月球与行星实验室);Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Kiel University(基尔大学实验与应用物理研究所)
During solar flares, a large fraction of the released magnetic energy is carried by energetic electrons that transfer and deposit energy in the Sun's atmosphere. Electron transport is often approximated by a cold thick-target model (CTTM), assuming that electron energy is much larger than the temperature of the ambient plasma, and electron energy evolution is modeled as a systematic loss. Using kinetic modeling of electrons, we re-evaluate the transport and deposition of flare energy. Using a full collisional warm-target model (WTM), we account for electron thermalization and for the propertie…
Context: Late on 2013 August 19, STEREO-A, STEREO-B, MESSENGER, Mars Odyssey, and the L1 spacecraft, spanning a longitudinal range of 222° in the ecliptic plane, observed an energetic particle flux increase. The widespread solar energetic particle (SEP) event was associated with a coronal mass ejection (CME) that came from a region located near the far-side central meridian from Earth's perspective. The CME erupted in two stages, and was accompanied by a late M-class flare observed as a post-eruptive arcade, persisting low-frequency (interplanetary) type II and groups of shock-accelerated type…
Impulsive solar energetic particle events are widely believed to be due to the prompt escape into the interplanetary medium of flare-accelerated particles produced by solar eruptive events. According to the standard model for such events, however, particles accelerated by the flare reconnection should remain trapped in the flux rope comprising the coronal mass ejection. The particles should reach the Earth only much later, along with the bulk ejecta. To resolve this paradox, we have extended our previous axisymmetric model for the escape of flare-accelerated particles to fully three-dimensiona…
We study the influence of the large-scale interplanetary magnetic field configuration on the solar energetic particles (SEPs) as detected at different satellites near Earth and on the correlation of their peak intensities with the parent solar activity. We selected SEP events associated with X and M-class flares at western longitudes, in order to ensure good magnetic connection to Earth. These events were classified into two categories according to the global interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) configuration present during the SEP propagation to 1AU: standard solar wind or interplanetary coron…
We study the effects of rotation on the dynamics, energetics and Ni-56 production of Pair Instability Supernova explosions by performing rotating two-dimensional ("2.5-D") hydrodynamics simulations. We calculate the evolution of eight low metallicity (Z = 10^-3, 10^-4 Zsun) massive (135-245 Msun) PISN progenitors with initial surface rotational velocities 50% that of the critical Keplerian value using the stellar evolution code MESA. We allow for both the inclusion and the omission of the effects of magnetic fields in the angular momentum transport and in chemical mixing, resulting in slowly-r…
This paper aims to study the polarization of hard X-ray (HXR) sources in the solar atmosphere, including Compton backscattering of photons in the photosphere (the albedo effect) and the spatial distribution of polarization across the source. HXR photon polarization and spectra produced via electron-ion bremsstrahlung are calculated from electron distributions typical for solar flares. Compton scattering and photoelectric absorption are then modelled using Monte Carlo simulations of photon transport in the photosphere. Polarization maps across HXR sources (primary and albedo components) for eac…