How to script particle systems?

You can use the Size By Speed module with GPU particles to achieve this.

Alternately, you can create a particleParameter for the sizeScale module, and modify the scale using a variable inside of a BluePrint to change the scale of your particles along an axis based on BluePrint logic.

For any of these solutions you will want to use velocity, rectangle alignment, or a mesh emitter.

Info on particleParameters