Cross-scale Structuring of Coronal Mass Ejection-driven Shocks with Implications to Suprathermal to Energetic Particles

Authors: R. C. Allen (SwRI), G. C. Ho (SwRI), S. K. Vines (SwRI), M. H. Walker (JHU), S. Davis (UTSA/SwRI), G. M. Mason (APL), M. A. Dayeh (SwRI), S. Hart (SwRI), R. Filwett (U. Montana), T. S. Horbury (Imperial), R. F. Wimmer-Schweingruber (U. Kiel), J. Rodriguez-Pacheco (UAH), R. Torbert (SwRI/UNH), and J. L. Burch (SwRI)

Coronal Mass Ejections are known to exhibit cross-scale (i.e., macro-, meso-, and micro-scale) structuring. However, limitations in their observations (e.g., number of spacecraft and the scale-size separation between them) have limited our understanding in both the scale-size dependent structuring as well as the subsequent impact on energetic particle acceleration. On 2026 January 19th, a CME was observed crossing the near-Earth environment (including measurements from ACE, Wind, ADITYA-L1, DSCOVR, ARTEMIS, and MMS) while Earth was magnetically aligned with Solar Orbiter at 0.76 au and 51 degrees away from STEREO-A. This allows for in-depth analysis of the CME-driven shock structure at a variety of scales, ranging from micro- (MMS), meso- (near-Earth observatories), and macro-scales (Earth to Solar Orbiter and STEREO-A). This study will focus on the scale-dependent variation in the CME-driven shock structure while also comparing the energetic particle spectra to explore the energy-dependence of local shock geometries on energetic storm particle acceleration and trapping.