The reason for the widespread energetic storm particle event of 13 March 2023
: Dresing, N.; Jebaraj, I. C.; Wijsen, N.; Palmerio, E.; Rodriguez-Garcia, L.; Palmroos, C.; Gieseler, J.; Jarry, M.; Asvestari, E.; Mitchell, J. G.; Cohen, C. M. S.; Lee, C. O.; Wei, W.; Ramstad, R.; Riihonen, E.; Oleynik, P.; Kouloumvakos, A.; Warmuth, A.; Sanchez-Cano, B.; Ehresmann, B.; Dunn, P.; Dudnik, O.; Mac Cormack, C.
Publisher: EDP Sciences
: LES ULIS CEDEX A
: 2025
: Astronomy and Astrophysics
: Astronomy & Astrophysics
: ASTRON ASTROPHYS
: A127
: 695
: 25
: 0004-6361
: 1432-0746
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202453596(external)
: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202453596(external)
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/491583979(external)
Context. On 13 March 2023, when the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft (S/C) was situated on the far side of the Sun as seen from Earth, a large solar eruption took place, which created a strong solar energetic particle (SEP) event observed by multiple S/C all around the Sun. The energetic event was observed at six well-separated locations in the heliosphere, provided by the Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, BepiColombo, STEREO A, near-Earth S/C, and MAVEN at Mars. Clear signatures of an in situ shock crossing and a related energetic storm particle (ESP) event were observed at all inner-heliospheric S/C, suggesting that the interplanetary coronal mass ejection (CME)-driven shock extended all around the Sun. However, the solar event was accompanied by a series of pre-event CMEs.
Aims. We aim to characterize this extreme widespread SEP event and to provide an explanation for the unusual observation of a circumsolar interplanetary shock and a corresponding circumsolar ESP event.
Methods. We analyzed data from seven space missions, namely Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, BepiColombo, STEREO A, SOHO, Wind, and MAVEN, to characterize the solar eruption at the Sun, the energetic particle event, and the interplanetary context at each observer location as well as the magnetic connectivity of each observer to the Sun. We then employed magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the solar wind in which we injected various CMEs that were launched before as well as contemporaneously with the solar eruption under study. In particular, we tested two different scenarios that could have produced the observed global ESP event: (1) a single circumsolar blast-wave-like shock launched by the associated solar eruption, and (2) the combination of multiple CMEs driving shocks into different directions.
Results. By comparing the simulations of the two scenarios with observations, we find that both settings are able to explain the observations. However, the blast-wave scenario performs slightly better in terms of the predicted shock arrival times at the various observers.
Conclusions. Our work demonstrates that a circumsolar ESP event, driven by a single solar eruption into the inner heliosphere, is a realistic scenario.
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We acknowledge funding by the European Union's Horizon 2020/Horizon Europe research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 101004159 (SERPENTINE) and No. 101134999 (SOLER). The paper reflects only the authors' view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. Work in the University of Turku was performed under the umbrella of Finnish Centre of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space (FORESAIL) funded by the Research Council of Finland (grant No. 352847). N.D. and I.C.J. are grateful for support by the Research Council of Finland (SHOCKSEE, grant No. 346902). We thank the members of the data analysis working group at the Space Research Laboratory of the University of Turku, Finland for useful discussions. N.W. acknowledges funding from the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO - Vlaanderen, fellowship no. 1184319N) and the KU Leuven research project 3E241013. Computational resources used for the EUHFORIA simulations presented in this work were provided by the VSC (Flemish Supercomputer Center), funded by FWO - Vlaanderen and the Flemish Government - department EWI. E.P. acknowledges support from NASA's PSP-GI (grant No. 80NSSC22K0349), HGI (grant No. 80NSSC23K0447), LWS (grant No. 80NSSC19K0067), and LWS-SC (grant No. 80NSSC22K0893) programmes, as well as NSF's PREEVENTS (grant No. ICER-1854790) programme. L.R.-G. acknowledges support through the European Space Agency (ESA) research fellowship programme. C.O.L. acknowledges support from the MAVEN project funded through the NASA Mars Exploration Program, NASA LWS and MDAP (Grants 80NSSC21K1325, 80NSSC21K0119, 80NSSC19K1224) and the IMPACT Investigation funded by the NASA Heliophysics Division through the STEREO Project Office at NASA GSFC. W.W. acknowledges support from NASA LWS (Grants 80NSSC21K1325, 80NSSC21K0119). A.K. acknowledges financial support from NASA's NNN06AA01C (SO-SIS Phase-E and Parker Solar Probe) contract. B.E. and P.D. acknowledge support from NASA MDAP (Grant 80NSSC19K1224). We acknowledge funding by the "Long-term program of support of the Ukrainian research teams at the Polish Academy of Sciences carried out in collaboration with the U.S. National Academy of Sciences with the financial support of external partners" (Grant PAN.BFB.S.BWZ.363.022.2023). We thank the Solar Orbiter instrument teams for providing the data. Solar Orbiter is a mission of international cooperation between ESA and NASA, operated by ESA. BepiColombo is a joint ESA - JAXA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and JAXA. Parker Solar Probe was designed, built, and is now operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory as part of NASA's Living with a Star (LWS) program (contract NNN06AA01C). Support from the LWS management and technical team has played a critical role in the success of the Parker Solar Probe mission. B.S.-C. acknowledges support through STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship ST/V004115/1 E.A. acknowledges support from the Research Council of Finland (Academy Research Fellow project SOFTCAT, grant No. 355659).
