Immanuel Christopher Jebaraj

Collisionless shocks confine the particles they accelerate with the upstream wave field they themselves drive. Streaming particles resonantly amplify Alfvén waves, and the waves then confine the same particles by pitch-angle scattering. The rigidity a shock precursor can hold is therefore capped by how fast those waves grow, and that coupling has not previously been constrained in situ at any interplanetary shock. Here, we report Parker Solar Probe measurements of a fast, near-parallel coronal mass ejection-driven shock at 0.24 au on 2023 March 13 that constrain this wave–particle coupling through the energetic-particle population it accelerates. We measure the spectral folding energy, the boundary between the confined and the upstream-escaping protons, and find that it falls from ∼6 to ∼1.5 MeV as E _fold ∝ Δ t ^α with α ≃ 0.34, where Δ t is the time remaining before the shock arrival. One precursor convective time before the shock arrival, this boundary is at E _c ≃ 2.46 MeV, defining a characteristic confinement energy for the precursor of scale L _EP . Read through the quasi-linear marginal-stability condition; the same evolution implies a resonant wave-growth timescale τ _growth ( E ) ∝ E ^{1/ α} ≃ E ^2.92 that exceeds the precursor convective time above E _c . The postshock pitch-angle anisotropy reverses its sign across the same confinement–escape transition at 2–5 MeV. The rigidity to which a shock precursor can confine particles is therefore set, in situ, by how quickly the streaming population builds its own confining waves.

The most intense radio feature in the Solar System are the solar Type‐III radio bursts, which are associated with electron beams that propagate along open magnetic field lines. Although solar radio bursts have been studied since the 1940s, observations remain mainly restricted within 1 AU. In this study, we explore 16.5 years of data (2005–2021) from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) onboard Mars Express. While not the central aim of the instrument, MARSIS has been recording solar radio bursts since its deployment in mid‐2005. Given the potential of this new radio burst data set for heliophysics studies, we have created a catalog of Type‐III solar radio burst events between 1.38 and 1.66 AU (Mars' orbit) within the frequency range of 0.1 and 5.5 MHz and with an instrument measuring cadence of 7.5 s. We demonstrate that these emissions seen at Mars come from the Sun, follow the solar cycle pattern, and are not influenced by the planet's own properties such as crustal magnetic fields. We also compare the propagation of a few illustrative events from the Sun to Mars to demonstrate the utility of this new data set for heliophysics studies. Mars catalogs provide a fundamentally new perspective on the spatial extent, directivity, and evolution of solar radio emission in the inner heliosphere. It serves as an essential benchmark for multi‐point heliospheric studies and for constraining radio emissions mechanisms beyond Earth orbit, and demonstrating the usefulness of planetary missions in contributing to heliophysics science in diverse ways.

Diffusive shock acceleration, at shocks from coronal mass ejections to supernova remnant blast waves, presupposes a scattering wave field that the accelerated particles themselves maintain. This self-regulation has not been resolved in situ. We report Parker Solar Probe observations of a fast (≃2800 km s ⁻¹ ), near-parallel interplanetary shock at 0.24 au on 2023 March 13 and separate its upstream wave field into four families, a classification not made before at a fast shock near the Sun. Right-hand and left-hand circularly polarized families over a common wavenumber band, with a field-aligned linearly polarized family, are cyclotron resonant with the suprathermal-to-MeV protons streaming from the shock: the beam drives the field that scatters it, and the measured mean free path, half the precursor scale, leaves the beam anisotropic enough to sustain the drive. Outside this loop lies a weak, oblique, linearly polarized component, a few percent of the wave power, resolved here for the first time at an in situ foreshock. Its in-phase density and field-magnitude fluctuations identify the compressive part as fast magnetosonic and shift the cyclotron resonance energies of the resonant families by up to 13% along the precursor. Acceleration at shocks inside 0.3 au is governed upstream, in a foreshock the shock builds for itself.

We present a detailed investigation of the shock properties associated with solar energetic particle (SEP) events that exhibit a concave (“nose-like”) shape in their energy spectrogram, characterized by inverse velocity arrival (IVA) of the particles, where high-energy particles arrive later than mid-energy ones. Using measurements from Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe between 2018 and 2025, we identify 26 such SEP events and reconstruct the observed shock fronts in three dimensions. We derive shock parameters along the magnetic field lines connected to each spacecraft using kinematic modeling and coronal magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Our analysis indicates that IVA-SEP events arise due to the spatial and temporal evolution of the shock properties and magnetic connectivity. In most of the cases analyzed here, the magnetic connectivity starts on the flanks of coronal mass ejection-driven shocks, where shocks tend to be weak, and shifts toward the shock apex, sampling stronger portions of the shock front. This evolution of the shock properties at the connected field lines likely leads to the delayed arrival of high-energy particles and the progressive hardening of the SEP energy spectrum, observed in some of the events. We find a correlation between the transition energy at which the IVA begins and the shock speed along the connected field lines, consistent with expectations from time-dependent diffusive shock acceleration. Our results underscore the importance of the evolving shock properties, magnetic connectivity, and instrumental sensitivity in shaping SEP intensity profiles and the formation of IVA signatures.

Collisionless shocks are fundamental accelerators of energetic particles, yet the observations of nonlinear foreshock structures, which are essential in acceleration processes, differ significantly between interplanetary (IP) shocks and planetary bow shocks. We present a direct comparison of two high-Mach-number, quasi-parallel shocks: an IP shock observed by Solar Orbiter and the Earth’s bow shock measured by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission during the 2024–2025 “string-of-pearls” campaign. We show that foreshock compressive structures (FCSs) initiate upstream of both shocks at similar normalized distances (≲50 ion inertial lengths, d _i ) when the suprathermal (>10 keV) ion density exceeds ∼1% of the background. However, the IP shock lacks the fully evolved, high-amplitude short large-amplitude magnetic structures characteristic of the terrestrial foreshock. We demonstrate that the “growth zone” capable of sustaining these structures is spatially limited (∼135 d _i ), which, due to the high speed of the propagating IP shock, corresponds to a brief observational window of <10 s. Beyond this observational constraint, we suggest an additional physical mechanism that can inhibit foreshock maturity at IP shocks. The lack of global curvature prevents the lateral supply (“cross talk”) of energetic ions from different shock regions. These findings suggest that while the fundamental physics of FCS initiation is unified across collisionless shocks, the achievement of full nonlinearity can be regulated by the unique shock geometry and upstream properties while ultimately remaining observationally challenging to identify.

Collisionless shocks are often modelled as smooth, planar surfaces - but many show organized corrugations that steer how particles get accelerated and how they radiate. We present a simple, linear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model that treats the shock as an evolving interface. This lets us separate two things: (1) the shock’s own properties and geometry, and (2) the statistics of the upstream turbulence that hits it. With this separation, we obtain adirect map from incoming fluctuations to the corrugation patterns they create, including their drift speed and coherence. In our model, the interface acts like an “impedance” that focuses broad-band turbulent power into fast-mode waves that skim along the shock. The shock responds most strongly when the wave’s normal group speed is small (a sharp, single-peaked response). Corrugation strength increases with compression, while the shock geometry and plasma beta control how long these patterns persist. The framework makes testable predictions linking upstream turbulence and shock shape to finestructure in electromagnetic signals from heliospheric and supernova-remnant shocks.

Context. The energy spectra of energetic particles offer valuable insights into particle acceleration processes. While the commonly observed spectral breaks in solar energetic electron (SEE) spectra could serve as fingerprints of the acceleration process, several transport-related effects have been proposed to be responsible as well. Here, we analyse the energy spectra of intense SEE events measured with Solar Orbiter’s Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) between December 2020 and December 2022. Aims. We investigate the shape of SEE spectra by fitting them with various mathematical models. We compare our results with previous studies and explore possible links to transport-related effects. We aim to identify potential correlations between spectral features and meaningful parameters, such as the radial distance, or the properties of associated solar events. Methods. We determined the background-subtracted peak-intensity spectra as observed by EPD, accounting for velocity dispersion. We fit the spectra of STEP and EPT with various mathematical models, using an automated method that chooses the best possible fit. Results. We found four different spectral shapes in our analysis: single power law, double power law and two types of triple power law: a knee-knee (KK) and an ankle-knee (AK) triple power law. No significant correlations with radial distance were identified; although the observed spectral shapes display an ordering with the longitudinal separation between the spacecraft and the associated solar flare. We also observed a correlation between the spectral index in the intermediate energy range at 70 keV and the strength of the associated solar flare. The correlation disappears at lower and higher energies, suggesting a stronger influence of transport effects at those energies. Conclusions. We conclude that multiple processes are likely involved in shaping SEE spectra. Our results suggest that the two breaks of the KK triple power law spectra arise from distinct effects, Langmuir-wave generation, and pitch-angle scattering, respectively. Our results also suggest that the break in the double power laws could represent a merger between the first and second breaks of KK triple power laws.

The formation of a collisionless shock is the result of a balance between nonlinear steepening and processes that counteract this steepening. Dispersive shocks are shocks in which dispersive processes counterbalance the front steepening and are formed when the dispersive spatial scale exceeds scales associated with resistive processes. Oblique dispersive shocks are characterized by a phase standing wave precursor adjacent to the magnetic ramp. The whistler critical Mach number is defined as the maximum Mach number for which a linear whistler wave can phase stand upstream of the shock front. It was widely accepted that if the Mach number exceeds , linear whistler waves propagating along the shock normal are not able to “phase stand” in the upstream flow, and “…the shock will be initiated by a monotonic ramp.” (Kennel et al., 1985, https://doi.org/10.1029/gm034p0001 ). In this study, we present results of numerical simulations and observations of shocks with that reveal the occurrence of an alternative scenario. For both the shock resulting from kinetic particle‐in‐cell simulations and that observed by MMS, the propagation direction of the precursor deviates from the shock normal direction. As a result, the velocity of the surface of constant phase along the shock normal exceeds the phase speed of these waves. It is shown that the propagation of the surface of constant phase along the shock normal occurs at a velocity that is nearly equal to the shock speed. Hence, these waves are “phase standing along the shock normal” in spite of .