Acceleration of CMEs: A Diagnostic for Driving Mechanisms?

Details Acceleration of CMEs: A Diagnostic for Driving Mechanisms? Acceleration of CMEs: A Diagnostic for Driving Mechanisms?

Dec 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003agufmsh21a..02c&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003, abstract #SH21A-02

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

7513 Coronal Mass Ejections

Scientific paper

Typical coronal mass ejections (CMEs) undergo the bulk of their acceleration low in the corona. Theoretical analysis based on a three-dimensional flux-rope geometry [1] shows that CME acceleration profiles exhibit a universal scaling law characterized by the critical scale height Z* ≡ Sf/2, where Sf is the separation distance between the two stationary footpoints of the flux rope. Specifically, maximum acceleration is attained shortly after the apex of the flux rope reaches height Z* from the solar surface, and the acceleration is subsequently reduced to about 1/4 of the peak value when the apex reaches height Zm ˜= 3 Z*. This means that the observed acceleration profile in the low corona can directly yield information on the geometrical size of the flux rope, i.e., Sf. The Sf scaling is applicable regardless of the eruption speed so long as the pre-eruption structure is a flux rope or becomes one early enough in the eruption process. The scaling law has been tested against observed CMEs using TRACE, C1, C2, and C3 data, with good quantitative agreement, and is consistent with a recent simulation of a 3-D flux rope [2]. We discuss the observational implications of these results with respect to various proposed CME models and driving mechanisms. [1] Chen, J., and J. Krall, Acceleration of coronal mass ejections, J. Geophys. Res., in press, 2003 [2] Roussev, I. I., et al., Astrophys. J., 588, L45, 2003. Work supported by ONR and NASA

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