Modeling of Solar Energetic Particles in Interplanetary Space

Abstract

Solar energetic particles (SEPs) in the interplanetary (IP) medium are transported under the influence of electromagnetic fields of the solar wind. These fields consists of the smooth background fields, which can be modeled by the MHD equations governing the expansion of the solar wind, and of the small-scale fluctuations (waves or turbulence) that scatter the particles in pitch angle and act as agents enabling their acceleration at IP shock waves. We review theoretical models of SEP transport and acceleration in the IP medium. We start from the simple analytical approaches (diffusion models), which assume quasi-isotropic particle distributions, and then continue to the more accurate numerical approaches based on the focused transport equation, not making this simplifying assumption. A careful analysis of two SEP events, an impulsive and a gradual one, is presented and the spatial scaling of their peak intensities, differential fluences and time-integrated net fluxes is discussed. We conclude that rather simple scaling laws for these quantities can be obtained for impulsive events but no simple scaling laws can be expected to govern the gradual SEP eventsKeywordsSolar WindCoronal Mass EjectionSolar PhysSolar Energetic ParticleInterplanetary SpaceThese 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.