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Observational Tracking of the 2D Structure of Coronal Mass Ejections Between the Sun and 1 AU

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Abstract

The Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) provides high cadence and high resolution images of the structure and morphology of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the inner heliosphere. CME directions and propagation speeds have often been estimated through the use of time-elongation maps obtained from the STEREO Heliospheric Imager (HI) data. Many of these CMEs have been identified by citizen scientists working within the SolarStormWatch project ( www.solarstormwatch.com ) as they work towards providing robust real-time identification of Earth-directed CMEs. The wide field of view of HI allows scientists to directly observe the two-dimensional (2D) structures, while the relative simplicity of time-elongation analysis means that it can be easily applied to many such events, thereby enabling a much deeper understanding of how CMEs evolve between the Sun and the Earth. For events with certain orientations, both the rear and front edges of the CME can be monitored at varying heliocentric distances (R) between the Sun and 1 AU. Here we take four example events with measurable position angle widths and identified by the citizen scientists. These events were chosen for the clarity of their structure within the HI cameras and their long track lengths in the time-elongation maps. We show a linear dependency with R for the growth of the radial width (W) and the 2D aspect ratio (χ) of these CMEs, which are measured out to ≈ 0.7 AU. We estimated the radial width from a linear best fit for the average of the four CMEs. We obtained the relationships W=0.14R+0.04 for the width and χ=2.5R+0.86 for the aspect ratio (W and R in units of AU).

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Acknowledgements

N.P.S. thanks the reviewer for his/her constructive comments and would also like to give my deepest appreciation to Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and JSPS London for the award of the (short-term) postdoctoral fellowship and the fantastic opportunity to work within Japan. This research was also supported by the NASA Living With a Star Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, administered by the UCAR Visiting Scientist Programs and hosted by the Naval Research Laboratory. N.P.S. would like to thank N. Sheeley for useful discussion, and the science team and citizen scientists from the SolarStormWatch project and the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Corporation for Atmospheric Physics (UCAR), Boulder, CO, USA

    N. P. Savani

  2. RAL Space, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Oxford, Didcot, OX11 0QX, UK

    J. A. Davies & C. J. Davis

  3. Computational Astrophysics Laboratory, Advanced Science Institute, RIKEN, 2-1, Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan

    D. Shiota

  4. College of Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    A. P. Rouillard

  5. Space Environment Physic Group, University of Reading, Earley Gate, P.O. Box 243, Reading, RG6 6BB, UK

    C. J. Davis & M. J. Owens

  6. Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    K. Kusano

  7. Institut für Astrophysik, Göttingen University, Göttingen, Germany

    V. Bothmer

  8. Centre for Astronomy and Particle Theory, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    S. P. Bamford

  9. Astrophysics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3RH, UK

    C. J. Lintott & A. Smith

  10. Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA

    N. P. Savani & A. P. Rouillard

  11. The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2BZ, UK

    M. J. Owens

  12. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 236-0001, Japan

    K. Kusano

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  1. N. P. Savani
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Savani, N.P., Davies, J.A., Davis, C.J. et al. Observational Tracking of the 2D Structure of Coronal Mass Ejections Between the Sun and 1 AU. Sol Phys 279, 517–535 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-012-0041-6

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