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Context: Late on 2013 August 19, a coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from an active region located near the far-side central meridian from Earth's perspective. The event and its accompanying shock were remotely observed by the STEREO-A, STEREO-B and SOHO spacecraft. The interplanetary counterpart (ICME) was intercepted by MESSENGER near 0.3 au, and by both STEREO-A and STEREO-B, near 1 au, which were separated by 78{\deg} in heliolongitude. The main objective of this study is to follow the radial and longitudinal evolution of the ICME throughout the inner heliosphere, and to examine possible scenarios for the different magnetic flux-rope configuration observed on the solar disk, and measured in situ at the locations of MESSENGER and STEREO-A, separated by 15{\deg} in heliolongitude, and at STEREO-B, which detected the ICME flank. Results: We find that the magnetic flux-rope structure detected at STEREO-B belongs to the same ICME detected at MESSENGER and STEREO-A. The opposite helicity deduced at STEREO-B, might be due to the spacecraft intercepting one of the legs of the structure far from the flux-rope axis, while STEREO-A and MESSENGER are crossing through the core of the magnetic flux rope. The different flux-rope orientations measured at MESSENGER and STEREO-A arise probably because the two spacecraft measure a curved, highly distorted and rather complex magnetic flux-rope topology. The ICME may have suffered additional distortion in its evolution in the inner heliosphere, such as the west flank is propagating faster than the east flank when arriving 1 au. Conclusions: This work illustrates how the ambient conditions can significantly affect the expansion and propagation of the CME/ICME, introducing additional irregularities to the already asymmetric eruption, and how these complex structures cannot be directly reconstructed with the current models available., Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures

Kollhoff, A., et al., Context. On 2020 November 29, the first widespread solar energetic particle (SEP) event of solar cycle 25 was observed at four widely separated locations in the inner (≲ 1 AU) heliosphere. Relativistic electrons as well as protons with energies > 50 MeV were observed by Solar Orbiter (SolO), Parker Solar Probe, the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)-A and multiple near-Earth spacecraft. The SEP event was associated with an M4.4 class X-ray flare and accompanied by a coronal mass ejection and an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wave as well as a type II radio burst and multiple type III radio bursts. Aims. We present multi-spacecraft particle observations and place them in context with source observations from remote sensing instruments and discuss how such observations may further our understanding of particle acceleration and transport in this widespread event. Methods. Velocity dispersion analysis (VDA) and time shift analysis (TSA) were used to infer the particle release times at the Sun. Solar wind plasma and magnetic field measurements were examined to identify structures that influence the properties of the energetic particles such as their intensity. Pitch angle distributions and first-order anisotropies were analyzed in order to characterize the particle propagation in the interplanetary medium. Results. We find that during the 2020 November 29 SEP event, particles spread over more than 230° in longitude close to 1 AU. The particle onset delays observed at the different spacecraft are larger as the flare-footpoint angle increases and are consistent with those from previous STEREO observations. Comparing the timing when the EUV wave intersects the estimated magnetic footpoints of each spacecraft with particle release times from TSA and VDA, we conclude that a simple scenario where the particle release is only determined by the EUV wave propagation is unlikely for this event. Observations of anisotropic particle distributions at SolO, Wind, and STEREO-A do not rule out that particles are injected over a wide longitudinal range close to the Sun. However, the low values of the first-order anisotropy observed by near-Earth spacecraft suggest that diffusive propagation processes are likely involved., The CAU Kiel team acknowledges support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the German Space Agency (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., DLR) under grants 50OT0901, 50OT1202, 50OT1702, and 50OT2002. A.K. acknowledges financial support from the ANR COROSHOCK project (ANR-17-CE31-0006-01). D.L. acknowledges support from NASA-HGI grant NNX16AF73G and the NASA Program NNH17ZDA001N-LWS. This study has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101004159 (SERPENTINE). The U. Turku team acknowledges funding by the Academy of Finland (Grant No. 336809). The UAH team acknowledges financial support by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades FEDER/MCIU/AEI Projects ESP2017-88436-R and PID2019-104863RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. [...] The Swedish National Space Agency, ESA-PRODEX and all the participating institutes. I.G.R. acknowledges support from NASA programs NNH19ZDA001N-HSR and NNH19ZDA001N-LWS, and the STEREO mission. IRFU team acknowledges support from the Swedish National Space Agency grant 20/136. A.A. acknowledges the support of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) under grant PID2019- 105510GB-C31 and through the ‘Center of Excellence María de Maeztu 2020-2023’ award to the ICCUB (CEX2019-000918- M). F.C. acknowledges the financial support by the Spanish MINECO-FPI-2016 predoctoral grant with FSE. E.A. would like to acknowledge the financial support by the Academy of Finland (Postdoctoral Grant No 322455). V.K. acknowledges the support by NASA under grants 18-2HSWO218_2-0010 and 19-HSR-19_2-0143. Solar Orbiter magnetometer operations are funded by the UK Space Agency (grant ST/T001062/1). T.S.H. is supported by STFC grant ST/S000364/1. T.L. and S.D. acknowledge support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC; grant ST/R000425/1).

Wimmer-Schweingruber, R. F., et al., [Context] Solar Orbiter strives to unveil how the Sun controls and shapes the heliosphere and fills it with energetic particle radiation. To this end, its Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) has now been in operation, providing excellent data, for just over a year. [Aims] EPD measures suprathermal and energetic particles in the energy range from a few keV up to (near-) relativistic energies (few MeV for electrons and about 500 MeV nuc-1 for ions). We present an overview of the initial results from the first year of operations and we provide a first assessment of issues and limitations. In addition, we present areas where EPD excels and provides opportunities for significant scientific progress in understanding how our Sun shapes the heliosphere. [Methods] We used the solar particle events observed by Solar Orbiter on 21 July and between 10 and 11 December 2020 to discuss the capabilities, along with updates and open issues related to EPD on Solar Orbiter. We also give some words of caution and caveats related to the use of EPD-derived data. [Results] During this first year of operations of the Solar Orbiter mission, EPD has recorded several particle events at distances between 0.5 and 1 au from the Sun. We present dynamic and time-averaged energy spectra for ions that were measured with a combination of all four EPD sensors, namely: the SupraThermal Electron and Proton sensor (STEP), the Electron Proton Telescope (EPT), the Suprathermal Ion Spectrograph (SIS), and the High-Energy Telescope (HET) as well as the associated energy spectra for electrons measured with STEP and EPT. We illustrate the capabilities of the EPD suite using the 10 and 11 December 2020 solar particle event. This event showed an enrichment of heavy ions as well as 3He, for which we also present dynamic spectra measured with SIS. The high anisotropy of electrons at the onset of the event and its temporal evolution is also shown using data from these sensors. We discuss the ongoing in-flight calibration and a few open instrumental issues using data from the 21 July and the 10 and 11 December 2020 events and give guidelines and examples for the usage of the EPD data. We explain how spacecraft operations may affect EPD data and we present a list of such time periods in the appendix. A list of the most significant particle enhancements as observed by EPT during this first year is also provided., We acknowledge the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades for their invaluable support on the development of the EPD suite and the ICU under grants FEDER/MCIU – Agencia Estatal de Investigación/Projects ESP2015-68266-R, ESP2017-88436-R and PID2019-104863RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. We also thank acknowledge the financial support by the Spanish MINECO-FPI-2016 predoctoral grant with FSE. We thank the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the German Space Agency (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, e.V., (DLR)) for their unwavering support of STEP, EPT, and HET under grants numbers 50OT0901, 50OT1202, 50OT1702, and 50OT2002; and ESA for supporting the build of SIS under contract number SOL.ASTR.CON.00004, as well as the University of Kiel and the Land Schleswig-Holstein for their support of SIS. We thank NASA headquarters and the GSFC Solar Orbiter project office for support of SIS at APL under contract NNN06AA01C. A.A. acknowledges the support by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) under grant PID2019- 105510GB-C31 and through the ‘Center of Excellence María de Maeztu 2020-2023’ award to the ICCUB (CEX2019-000918- M). Solar Orbiter magnetometer operations are funded by the UK Space Agency (grant ST/T001062/1). Tim Horbury is supported by STFC grant ST/S000364/1. We acknowledge funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101004159 (SERPENTINE).

Aran, A., et al., [Context] In mid-June 2020, the Solar Orbiter (SolO) mission reached its first perihelion at 0.51 au and started its cruise phase, with most of the in situ instruments operating continuously. [Aims] We present the in situ particle measurements of the first proton event observed after the first perihelion obtained by the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) suite on board SolO. The potential solar and interplanetary (IP) sources of these particles are investigated. Methods. Ion observations from ∼20 keV to ∼1 MeV are combined with available solar wind data from the Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument and magnetic field data from the magnetometer on board SolO to evaluate the energetic particle transport conditions and infer the possible acceleration mechanisms through which particles gain energy. We compare > 17-20 MeV ion count rate measurements for two solar rotations, along with the solar wind plasma data available from the Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) and RPW instruments, in order to infer the origin of the observed galactic cosmic ray (GCR) depressions. [Results] The lack of an observed electron event and of velocity dispersion at various low-energy ion channels and the observed IP structure indicate a local IP source for the low-energy particles. From the analysis of the anisotropy of particle intensities, we conclude that the low-energy ions were most likely accelerated via a local second-order Fermi process. The observed GCR decrease on 19 June, together with the 51.8-1034.0 keV nuc-1 ion enhancement, was due to a solar wind stream interaction region (SIR). The observation of a similar GCR decrease in the next solar rotation favours this interpretation and constitutes the first observation of a recurrent GCR decrease by SolO. The analysis of the recurrence times of this SIR suggests that it is the same SIR responsible for the He events previously measured in April and May. Finally, we point out that an IP structure more complex than a common SIR cannot be discarded, mainly due to the lack of solar wind temperature measurements and the lack of a higher cadence of solar wind velocity observations., EPD was built with funding from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (Germany), and the European Space Agency (ESA); operations are funded by FEDER/MCI/AEI Projects ESP2017-88436-R and PID2019-104863RBI00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (Spain), 50OT 2002 (DLR, Germany), and NASA contract 80MSFC19F0002. The UB team acknowledges the support by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) under grant PID2019-105510GB-C31 and through the “Center of Excellence María de Maeztu 2020-2023” award to the ICCUB (CEX2019-000918-M). The CAU Kiel team acknowledges support by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the German Space Agency (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., DLR) under grants 50OT0901, 50OT1202, 50OT1702, 50OT2002, and 50OC1702. The Solar Orbiter magnetometer was funded by the UK Space Agency (grant ST/T001062/1). M.L. and S.B. acknowledge financial support by the Italian MIUR-PRIN grant 2017APKP7T on Circumterrestrial Environment: Impact of Sun-Earth Interaction. N.W. acknowledges funding from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO – Vlaanderen, fellowship no. 1184319N). D.L. acknowledges the support from the NASA-HGI grant NNX16AF73G and the NASA Programs NNH17ZDA001N-LWS. I.G.R. and D.L. acknowledge support from NASA program NNH19ZDA001N-LWS. E.S. was supported by a PhD grant awarded by the Royal Observatory of Belgium. V.K. acknowledges the support by NASA under grants 18-2HSWO218_2-0010 and 19-HSR-19_2-0143. S.P. is supported by the projects C14/19/089 (C1 project Internal Funds KU Leuven), G.0D07.19N (FWO-Vlaanderen), SIDEX (ESA Prodex-12), and EUHFORIA 2.0 (funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870405). IRFU team acknowledges support from the Swedish National Space Agency grant 20/136. F.C. acknowledges the financial support by the Spanish MINECO-FPI-2016 predoctoral grant with FSE. The JHU/APL team is supported under NASA contract NNN06AA01C and thanks NASA headquarters and the NASA/GSFC Solar Orbiter project office for their continuing support. Solar Orbiter Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) data are derived from scientific sensors which have been designed and created, and are operated under funding provided in numerous contracts from the UK Space Agency (UKSA, most recently grant ST/T001356/1), the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES, France), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France), the Czech contribution to the ESA PRODEX programme and NASA.