Acceleration of Energetic Particles at Solar Wind Shocks

Abstract

A review of the acceleration of energetic ions at interplanetary shocks is presented with an emphasis on the theory of diffusive shock acceleration and interplanetary traveling shocks. The basic theory is discussed briefly including wave excitation. Ten predictions of the theory as outlined by Kennel et al. (1985) are presented and found to compare favorably with the observations of the 11, 12 November 1978 event. Some problems are presented which should be addressed by future theoretical/experimental work. A simple illustrative application of diffusive acceleration theory is made to the acceleration of ions at shocks in the distant heliosphere and compared qualitatively with the intensity profiles observed by Pioneer 10. Finally some brief thoughts on shock acceleration at high solar latitudes are presented.KeywordsSolar WindEnergetic ParticleInterplanetary ShockShock AccelerationDiffusive Shock AccelerationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.