- 1European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), Spain
- 2The Blackett Laboratory, Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
- 3Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
The existing fleet of spacecraft at 1 AU represents an important opportunity for multi-mission, multi-spacecraft direct investigations of heliospheric plasmas.
In this work, we focus on a strong interplanetary (IP) shock which crossed Wind, ACE, DSCOVR, THEMIS B and THEMIS C on 3 Nov 2021. Further, the shock was observed by well radially aligned Solar Orbiter at 0.8 AU. Such spacecraft configuration was used in a previous study to constrain the extent of the shock upstream populated by compressive structures (shocklets).
Here, we study the acceleration of protons up to 5 MeV energies and focus on the variability of energetic particle production. By cross-correlating energetic particle fluxes for the different vantage points, we find that the production of low energy (up to 100 keV) protons is strongly influenced by the local shock conditions, while high energy ones (up to 1 MeV) respond to the average shock conditions. At higher energies, we find that the energetic particle fluxes are modulated by large-scale structuring in the shock surroundings.
This study is relevant for IMAP, which will soon join such spacecraft fleet, and yield novel measurements of energetic particles at Lagrange point L1.
How to cite: Trotta, D., Horbury, T. S., and Giacalone, J.: Multi-spacecraft observations of particle acceleration in the near-Earth environment, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-5514, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-5514, 2025.
