Domenico Trotta, Imperial College London, UK
Olga Malandraki, National Observatory of Athens, Greece
Lynn B. Wilson III, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA
What are the roles of shocks, compressions, waves, and turbulence in the acceleration of energetic particles?
What are the seed particles for the mechanisms of particle energization? Where and how are the seed particles in suprathermal tails energized?
How is energy dissipated across collisionless shocks for different shock parameters?
How do interplanetary shocks and SEP events evolve with heliocentric distance?
How are the distribution functions of thermal, suprathermal, and high-energy ions inter-related and evolve across shocks and compression regions?
How are particles heated and energized by various spatial scales within the shock transition and across compression regions?
Is there any evidence of shocks mediated by energetic particles close to the Sun?
How do the dynamics of interplanetary shocks with larger spatial extent differ to smaller scale shocks (e.g. planetary bow shocks), and can a comparison to astrophysical shocks be made?
At what helio-distances do IP shocks form?
Improvement of our understanding of the origin and transport of energetic particles in the heliosphere, in association with Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs) propagation and evolution
How and where are energetic particles injected at the sources and in particular what are the seed populations for energetic particles?
How are energetic particles released from their sources and distributed in space and time? (transport radially and across magnetic field lines from the corona in the heliosphere)
Use of EPD observations to better constrain current particle transport models that describe SEP events – Improvement of existing propagation models;
Study of the temporal and spatial evolution of energetic particles accelerated by CIRs
More accurate source identification and timing studies of SEP events - Radio counterparts
Origin of relativistic ions in Ground Level Enhancement (GLE) events;
Origin of local particle enhancements in association with coherent structures in the solar wind in the inner heliosphere
Investigate roles of CME- and SIR-driven interplanetary shocks, solar flares, and other processes in accelerating energetic particles
Resolve conditions that determine when interplanetary shocks efficiently accelerate energetic particles
Generation of radio waves throught the interaction of the solar energetic electrons with the ambiant medium (Langmuir wave generation, plasma mode conversion ...)
Scattering of radio waves by the ambient density fluctuations and turbulence
Synergy between RPW and ground-based radio observatories
We will actively seek coordination with other missions such as: BepiColombo, PSP, WIND/ACE, MMS, THEMIS, Cluster, STEREO.