Proton, helium, and electron spectra during the large solar particle events of October–November 2003

Abstract

The extraordinary period from late October through early November 2003 was marked by more than 40 coronal mass ejections (CME), eight X‐class flares, and five large solar energetic particle (SEP) events. Using data from instruments on the ACE, SAMPEX, and GOES‐11 spacecraft, the fluences of H, He, O, and electrons have been measured in these five events over the energy interval from ∼0.1 to >100 MeV/nucleon for the ions and ∼0.04 to 8 MeV for electrons. The H, He, and O spectra are found to resemble double power laws, with a break in the spectral index between ∼5 and ∼50 MeV/nucleon which appears to depend on the charge‐to‐mass ratio of the species. Possible interpretations of the relative location of the H and He breaks are discussed. The electron spectra can also be characterized by double power laws, but incomplete energy coverage prevents an exact determination of where and how the spectra steepen. The proton and electron fluences in the 28 October 2003 SEP event are comparable to the largest observed during the previous solar maximum, and within a factor of 2 or 3 of the largest SEP events observed during the last 50 years. The 2‐week period covered by these observations accounted for ∼20% of the high‐energy solar‐particle fluence over the years from 1997 to 2003. By integrating over the energy spectra, the total energy content of energetic protons, He, and electrons in the interplanetary medium can be estimated. After correcting for the location of the events, it is found that the kinetic energy in energetic particles amounts to a significant fraction of the estimated CME kinetic energy, implying that shock acceleration must be relatively efficient in these events.