Modelling Solar Energetic Neutral Atoms from Solar Flares and CME-driven Shocks

Abstract

We examine the production of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) in solar flares and CME-driven shocks and their subsequent propagation to 1 au. Time profiles and fluence spectra of solar ENAs at 1 au are computed for two scenarios: 1) ENAs are produced downstream at CME-driven shocks, and 2) ENAs are produced at large-scale post-flare loops in solar flares. Both the time profiles and fluence spectra for these two scenarios are vastly different. Our calculations indicate that we can use solar ENAs as a new probe to examine the underlying acceleration process of solar energetic particles (SEPs) and to differentiate the two accelertion sites: large loops in solar flares and downstream of CME-driven shocks, in large SEP events.

11 pages, updated figures and paper is accepted by ApJ

References in corpus (3)

• Hard X-Ray Emission from Partially Occulted Solar Flares: RHESSI Observations in Two Solar Cycles
• Comparing Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Flares and High-Energy Solar Energetic Particles
• SWAP Observations of Post-flare Giant Arches in the Long-Duration 14 October 2014 Solar Eruption

Cited by in corpus (1)

• A study of particle acceleration, heating, power deposition, and the damping length of kinetic Alfvén waves in non-Maxwellian coronal plasma