Ryun-Young Kwon
George Mason University and The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
The role of solar supernova-shaped shock waves in longitudinal properties of widespread solar energetic particle events
We discuss how and where the solar energetic particles (SEPs) are accelerated by the solar eruptions and how SEPs injected with a single flare-coronal mass ejection (CME) event reach a wide range of heliospheric longitude and latitude. It has been found recently by the presenter that halo CMEs are supernova-shaped fast magnetosonic shock waves. The shock waves propagate all around the Sun and form the spherically shaped fronts enclosing the Sun. We investigated the three-dimensional geometries of the shock waves and compared them with longitudinal properties of widespread SEPs, using a number of spacecraft distributed in the inner heliosphere over a broad range of heliolongitudes. We argue that the supernova-shaped shock waves played a fundamental role in the injection of SEPs, and the geometries of the shocks were responsible for the properties of SEPs detected at different longitudes.