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Register a new userEstimation of the physical parameters of a CME at high coronal heights using low frequency radio observations
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Measuring the physical parameters of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), particularly their entrained magnetic field, is crucial for understanding their physics and for assessing their geo-effectiveness. At the moment, only remote sensing techniques can probe these quantities in the corona, the region where CMEs form and acquire their defining characteristics. Radio observations offer the most direct means for estimating the magnetic field when gyrosynchontron emission is detected. In this work we measure various CME plasma parameters, including its magnetic field, by modelling the gyrosynchrotron emission from a CME. The dense spectral coverage over a wide frequency range provided by the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) affords a much better spectral sampling than possible before. The MWA images also provide much higher imaging dynamic range, enabling us to image these weak emissions. Hence we are able to detect radio emission from a CME at larger distances ($4.73 R_odot$) than have been reported before. The flux densities reported here are amongst the lowest measured in similar works. Our ability to make extensive measurements on a slow and otherwise unremarkable CME suggest that with the availability of data from the new generation instruments like the MWA, it should now be possible to make routine direct detections of radio counterparts of CMEs.
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In this work UV and white light (WL) coronagraphic data are combined to derive the full set of plasma physical parameters along the front of a shock driven by a Coronal Mass Ejection. Pre-shock plasma density, shock compression ratio, speed and inclination angle are estimated from WL data, while pre-shock plasma temperature and outflow velocity are derived from UV data. The Rankine-Hugoniot (RH) equations for the general case of an oblique shock are then applied at three points along the front located between $2.2-2.6$ R$_odot$ at the shock nose and at the two flanks. Stronger field deflection (by $sim 46^circ$), plasma compression (factor $sim 2.7$) and heating (factor $sim 12$) occur at the nose, while heating at the flanks is more moderate (factor $1.5-3.0$). Starting from a pre-shock corona where protons and electrons have about the same temperature ($T_p sim T_e sim 1.5 cdot 10^6$ K), temperature increases derived with RH equations could better represent the protons heating (by dissipation across the shock), while the temperature increase implied by adiabatic compression (factor $sim 2$ at the nose, $sim 1.2-1.5$ at the flanks) could be more representative of electrons heating: the transit of the shock causes a decoupling between electron and proton temperatures. Derived magnetic field vector rotations imply a draping of field lines around the expanding flux rope. The shock turns out to be super-critical (sub-critical) at the nose (at the flanks), where derived post-shock plasma parameters can be very well approximated with those derived by assuming a parallel (perpendicular) shock.
Recent SECCHI COR2 observations on board STEREO-A spacecraft have detected density structures at a distance of 2.5--15~R propagating with periodicity of about 90~minutes. The observations show that the density structures probably formed in the lower corona. We used the large Ukrainian radio telescope URAN-2 to observe type IV radio bursts in the frequency range of 8--32~MHz during the time interval of 08:15--11:00~UT on August 1, 2011. Radio emission in this frequency range originated at the distance of 1.5--2.5 R according to the Baumbach-Allen density model of the solar corona. Morlet wavelet analysis showed the periodicity of 80~min in radio emission intensity at all frequencies, which demonstrates that there are quasi-periodic variations of coronal density at all heights. The observed periodicity corresponds to the acoustic cut-off frequency of stratified corona at a temperature of 1~MK. We suggest that continuous perturbations of the coronal base in the form of jets/explosive events generate acoustic pulses, which propagate upwards and leave the wake behind oscillating at the coronal cut-off frequency. This wake may transform into recurrent shocks due to the density decrease with height, which leads to the observed periodicity in the radio emission. The recurrent shocks may trigger quasi-periodic magnetic reconnection in helmet streamers, where the opposite field lines merge and consequently may generate periodic density structures observed in the solar wind.
By 2050, we expect that CME models will accurately describe, and ideally predict, observed solar eruptions and the propagation of the CMEs through the corona. We describe some of the present known unknowns in observations and models that would need to be addressed in order to reach this goal. We also describe how we might prepare for some of the unknown unknowns that will surely become challenges.
We report here on the determination of plasma physical parameters across a shock driven by a Coronal Mass Ejection using White Light (WL) coronagraphic images and Radio Dynamic Spectra (RDS). The event analyzed here is the spectacular eruption that occurred on June 7th 2011, a fast CME followed by the ejection of columns of chromospheric plasma, part of them falling back to the solar surface, associated with a M2.5 flare and a type-II radio burst. Images acquired by the SOHO/LASCO coronagraphs (C2 and C3) were employed to track the CME-driven shock in the corona between 2-12 R$_odot$ in an angular interval of about 110$^circ$. In these intervals we derived 2-Dimensional (2D) maps of electron density, shock velocity and shock compression ratio, and we measured the shock inclination angle with respect to the radial direction. Under plausible assumptions, these quantities were used to infer 2D maps of shock Mach number $M_text{A}$ and strength of coronal magnetic fields at the shocks heights. We found that in the early phases (2-4 R$_odot$) the whole shock surface is super-Alfvenic, while later on (i.e. higher up) it becomes super-Alfvenic only at the nose. This is in agreement with the location for the source of the observed type-II burst, as inferred from RDS combined with the shock kinematic and coronal densities derived from WL. For the first time, a coronal shock is used to derive a 2D map of the coronal magnetic field strength over a 10 R$_odot$ altitude and $sim 110^circ$ latitude intervals.
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are often accompanied by coronal dimming evident in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray observations. The locations of dimming are sometimes considered to map footpoints of the erupting flux rope. As the emitting material expands in the corona, the decreased plasma density leads to reduced emission observed in spectral and irradiance measurements. Therefore, signatures of dimming may reflect properties of CMEs in the early phase of its eruption. In this study, we analyze the event of flare, CME, and coronal dimming on December 26, 2011. We use the data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on Solar Dynamics Observatories (SDO) for disk observations of the dimming, and analyze images taken by EUVI, COR1, and COR2 onboard the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories to obtain the height and velocity of the associated CMEs observed at the limb. We also measure magnetic reconnection rate from flare observations. Dimming occurs in a few locations next to the flare ribbons, and it is observed in multiple EUV passbands. Rapid dimming starts after the onset of fast reconnection and CME acceleration, and its evolution well tracks the CME height and flare reconnection. The spatial distribution of dimming exhibits cores of deep dimming with a rapid growth, and their light curves are approximately linearly scaled with the CME height profile. From the dimming analysis, we infer the process of the CME expansion, and estimate properties of the CME.
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