PARADISE: the necessary scientific step towards a solar energetic particle forecast

Huge eruptions regularly take place on the sun, spewing gigantic clouds of hot plasma into space. These plasma clouds, also known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), drive shock waves that act as powerful accelerators of charged particles, commonly referred to as solar energy particles (SEPs). When SEPs strike our planet, they disrupt navigation satellites and endanger the lives of astronauts among other effects. It is therefore crucial to investigate the production and transport of SEPs in detail, so that we can eventually predict them accurately and thus take preventive measures.  In this project we study SEPs using our novel physics-based model PARADISE. We investigate the physical reason why the spreading of SEPs throughout our solar system is very variable across different SEP events. We do this by comparing simulation results with observations of, for example, the revolutionary spacecraft Parker Solar Probe. This study will allow us to better map the scattering and transport of SEPs throughout the heliosphere, which is crucial for the development of SEP forecasting tools. We also study to what extent a CME is able to continuously produce SEPs during its propagation through the solar system and how turbulence near the CME influences the production of SEPs. The results from this work will include a better understanding of which properties of the CME and the ambient solar wind affect the observations of SEP events, will also demonstrate the state-of-the-art of our SEP model