Research Article

A semi-analytical foreshock model for energetic storm particle events inside 1 AU

¹ Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, PO Box 64, FI 00014, Finland
² Deparment of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku, FI 20014, Finland
³ Finnish Meteorological Institute, PO Box 503, 00101 Helsinki, Finland
⁴ Jeremiah Horrocks Institute, University of Central Lancashire, PR1 2HE Preston, Lancashire, UK

^* Corresponding author: rami.vainio@utu.fi

Received: 16 September 2013
Accepted: 3 February 2014

Abstract

We have constructed a semi-analytical model of the energetic-ion foreshock of a CME-driven coronal/interplanetary shock wave responsible for the acceleration of large solar energetic particle (SEP) events. The model is based on the analytical model of diffusive shock acceleration of Bell (1978), appended with a temporal dependence of the cut-off momentum of the energetic particles accelerated at the shock, derived from the theory. Parameters of the model are re-calibrated using a fully time-dependent self-consistent simulation model of the coupled particle acceleration and Alfvén-wave generation upstream of the shock. Our results show that analytical estimates of the cut-off energy resulting from the simplified theory and frequently used in SEP modelling are overestimating the cut-off momentum at the shock by one order magnitude. We show also that the cut-off momentum observed remotely far upstream of the shock (e.g., at 1 AU) can be used to infer the properties of the foreshock and the resulting energetic storm particle (ESP) event, when the shock is still at small distances from the Sun, unaccessible to the in-situ observations. Our results can be used in ESP event modelling for future missions to the inner heliosphere, like the Solar Orbiter and Solar Probe Plus as well as in developing acceleration models for SEP events in the solar corona.