Two-parametric representation of the solar and heliospheric protons Original Research Article

The dynamics of the interplanetary proton spectra in the energy range 1–40 MeV have been investigated using the data obtained on board the IMP-8 (1973–1992) and Meteor (1970–1996) satellites. Phase diagrams of the proton events are constructed in the two-parametric space {Y,g}, where Y=g−1lg(Ip), g is the differential energy spectral index, Ip represents the >1 MeV proton intensity. The results show that the phase trajectories allow separation of the background proton fluxes, proton populations accelerated mainly in the solar flares, at the propagating interplanetary shocks associated with coronal mass ejections and also in the corotating interaction regions between fast and slow solar wind streams. The estimations of the maximal and minimal >1 MeV proton fluxes in the near Earth heliosphere are obtained.