CME-driven shocks as a possible source of the electron component in SEP-events

Contrary to the case of protons and ions, our understanding of the role of coronal mass ejections (CME) and shocks initiated by CMEs in the generation of electrons in solar energetic particle (SEP) events is far from complete. We have considered 65 SEP-events for which it was possible to study relations between the flux profile parameters of E > 0.3 MeV electron enhancements and the velocity of CMEs, as well as characteristics of associated flares. We found that the time to electron peak flux correlates strongly with CME velocity (correlation coefficient is ∼0.7–0.9) both after impulsive and long duration (LDE) flares. The best correlation was obtained in the case of electron enhancements related to flares that were accompanied by hard X-ray bursts with spectrum containing photons with enery <200 keV only.