Modeling solar energetic particle transport in 3D background solar wind: Influences of the compression regions

Abstract

Abstract In modeling the transport process of solar energetic particles (SEPs) in the heliosphere, previous simulation works often simplify the solar wind velocity as radial and constant, and treat the magnetic field as Parker spiral. In order to fully understand the effect of solar wind velocity and interplanetary magnetic field on the particles’ transport process, a realistic background solar wind and magnetic field is required. In this work, we use the focused transport model to investigate the transport of SEPs in the solar wind velocity and magnetic field generated by the 3D high-resolution MHD model with a six-component grid. We find that in the uncompressed solar wind, the time intensity profiles of energetic particles show similar trend in both the MHD background and the Parker magnetic field assumption. However, the simulated SEP flux displays an enhancement in the decay phase when a compression region sweeps past the local observer. Through investigating various effects, we find that the magnetic focusing effect is primarily responsible for the intensity enhancement, suggesting that the magnetic focusing effect has an important influence on the transport of SEPs. Further, we show that the magnetic focusing could also be effective in large heliocentric distances.