Ion acceleration at CME-driven shocks near the Earth and the Sun

Abstract

We compare the behavior of heavy ion spectra during an Energetic Storm Particle (ESP) event that exhibited clear evidence of wave excitation with that observed during an intense, large gradual Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) event in which the associated <0.2 MeV/nucleon ions are delayed >12 hr. We interpret that the ESP event is an example of the first-order Fermi acceleration process where enhancements in the magnetic field power spectral densities around local ion cyclotron frequency νpc indicate the presence of Alfvén waves excited by accelerated protons streaming away from the in-situ interplanetary shock. The softening or unfolding of the CNO energy spectrum below ∼200 keV/nucleon and the systematic organization of the Fe and O spectral roll-overs with the E/q ratio during the ESP event are likely due to M/Q-dependent trapping and scattering of the heavy ions by the proton-excited waves. Based on striking similarities in the spectral behavior observed upstream of both, the ESP and the SEP event, we suggest that coupling between proton-generated Alfvén waves and energetic ions is also operating at the distant CME shock during the large, gradual SEP event, thereby providing us with a new, powerful tool to remotely probe the roles of shock geometries and wave-particle interactions at near-Sun CME-driven shocks.