Authors: I.I. Roussev, I.V. Sokolov, T.I. Gombosi; T.G. Forbes, M.A. Lee
Affiliation: University of Michigan; University of New Hampshire
We present modeling results on the initiation and evolution of the coronal
mass ejection which occurred on 1998 May 2 in NOAA AR8210. This is done within
the framework of a global model of the solar magnetic field as it was observed
by the Wilcox Solar Observatory on 1998 May 2. On this day, a CME associated
with an X1.1/3B flare occurred in NOAA AR8210 at 13:42 UT, which was associated
with an SEP event observed by the NOAA GOES-9 satellite. A ground-level event
was also observed by the CLIMAX neutron monitor.
For this event, diffusive-shock-acceleration theory predicts a distribution
of solar energetic protons with a cut-off energy of about 10 GeV. Thus, there
appears to be no need to introduce an additional acceleration mechanism to account
for solar energetic protons with energies below 10 GeV. We conclude that a CME-driven
shock can develop close to the Sun sufficiently strong to account for energetic
particles at such high energies.