Radial Dependency of CME-associated Particle Acceleration Processes via Multipoint Observations from 2010-2024

Authors: Malik H. Walker (JHU), Robert C. Allen (SwRI), George C. Ho (SwRI), Glenn M. Mason (JHU/APL), Christina Cohen (CalTech), Christina Lee (SSL)

With the current wealth of spacecraft at various locations around the Sun, the study of propagating Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and their effect on particle acceleration in the inner heliosphere has become much more accessible. While the longitudinal dependency of CME-associated gradual SEP and ESP particle intensity, composition, and acceleration have previously been investigated, a similarly robust analysis and understanding of their radial dependency has yet to be achieved. Luckily, recent missions have resulted in a distribution of satellites at varying distances from the Sun, providing the opportunity for an improved statistical analysis of the radial evolution of the particle populations and acceleration mechanisms present at CME-driven shocks. We present the preliminary results of a statistical study conducted using events from 2010-2024 compiled from the online catalog ICMECAT, and observed in-situ by various solar wind observatories including Wind/ACE, Parker Solar Probe (PSP), Solar Orbiter, STEREO A/B, and MAVEN. From this, we identify multipoint sightings of CME events, and use the ion composition data, when available, from the observing spacecraft to glean the effects of radial variation on CME-associated species-dependent acceleration processes. By analyzing particle acceleration mechanisms within the inner heliosphere through this statistical framework, better constraints on their overall effects and dependencies can be determined.