Authors: Brian E. Wood (NRL), Phillip Hess (NRL), Kelly Victor-French (NRL), Karl Battams (NRL)
We use imaging from STEREO-A, LASCO, and Solo-HI to reconstruct the 3-D kinematics and morphology of three fast CMEs launched from the same solar active region toward Earth on 2025 November 9-11, the last of which yielded an extreme SEP event at Earth, particularly at high energies. The three CMEs occur roughly a day apart, with peak velocities increasing from 940 km/s for CME1 (UT 07:21 on Nov. 9) to 1330 km/s for CME2 (UT 09:11 on Nov. 10) to 2460 km/s for CME3 (UT 10:11 on Nov. 11). Our 3-D reconstruction is used to help interpret in situ data observed by Wind, Solar Orbiter (SO), and STEREO-A; all of which are hit by one or more of these CMEs. CME1 hits Earth at the beginning of Nov. 12, yielding a major geomagnetic storm. Heliospheric images from STEREO-A suggest that CME1 is given a nudge from behind by CME2, increasing its velocity and possibly its geoeffectiveness. A second geomagnetic storm is observed at the beginning of Nov. 13 when CME3 arrives. SO experiences a more direct hit from these CMEs, while STEREO-A experiences only glancing blows from CME2 and CME3. We speculate about whether CME1 and CME2 on Nov. 9-10 play a role in allowing CME3 to produce such a strong high energy SEP event on Nov. 11. In particular, the fast CME2 shock generates SEPs on its own, which the even faster CME3 can accelerate to unusually high energies.
