45 research outputs found
How Do Shock Waves Define the Space-Time Structure of Gradual Solar Energetic Particle Events?
We revisit the full variety of observed temporal and spatial distributions of
energetic solar protons in "gradual" solar energetic-particle (SEP) events
resulting from the spatial variations in the shock waves that accelerate them.
Differences in the shock strength at the solar longitude of a spacecraft and at
the footpoint of its connecting magnetic field line, nominally 55 degrees to
the west, drive much of that variation. The shock wave itself, together with
energetic particles trapped near it by self-amplified Alfven waves, forms an
underlying autonomous structure that can drive across magnetic field lines
intact, spreading proton intensities in a widening SEP longitude distribution.
During the formation of this fundamental structure, historically called an
"energetic storm particle" (ESP) event, many SEPs leak away early, amplifying
waves as they flow along well-connected field lines and broaden the
distribution outward; behind this structure between the shock and the Sun a
"reservoir" of quasi-trapped SEPs forms. Very large SEP events are complicated
by additional extensive wave growth that can spread an extended ESP-like
trapping region. The multiplicity of shock-related processes contributing to
the observed SEP profiles causes correlations of the events to be poorly
represented by the peak intensities commonly used. In fact, the extensive
spatial distributions of SEPs are sometimes interwoven with the structures of
the shocks that have accelerated them and sometimes free. We should consider
new questions: Which extremes of the shock contribute most to the SEPs profile
of an event, (1) the shock at the longitude of a spacecraft, (2) the shock ~55
degrees to the west at the footpoint of the field, or (3) SEPs that have
collected in the reservoir? How does the space-time distribution of SEPs
correspond with the underlying space-time distribution of shock strength?Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Space Sci. Re