Could the collision of CMEs in the heliosphere be super-elastic? --- Validation through three-dimensional simulations

Abstract

Though coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are magnetized fully-ionized gases, a recent observational study of a CME collision event in 2008 November has suggested that their behavior in the heliosphere is like elastic balls, and their collision is probably super-elastic \citep{Shen_etal_2012}. If this is true, this finding has an obvious impact on the space weather forecasting because the direction and veliocity of CMEs may change. To verify it, we numerically study the event through three-dimensional MHD simulations. The nature of CMEs' collision is examined by comparing two cases. In one case the two CMEs collide as observed, but in the other, they do not. Results show that the collision leads to extra kinetic energy gain by 3%--4% of the initial kinetic energy of the two CMEs. It firmly proves that the collision of CMEs could be super-elastic.

References in corpus (2)

• Super-elastic Collision of Large-scale Magnetized Plasmoids in The Heliosphere
• Magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the interaction between two interplanetary magnetic clouds and its consequent geoeffectiveness

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Deflected propagation of a coronal mass ejection from the corona to interplanetary space
• Evolution of the 2012 July 12 CME from the Sun to the Earth: Data-Constrained Three-Dimensional MHD Simulations
• Assessing the collision nature of coronal mass ejections in the inner heliosphere
• On Understanding the Nature of Collision of Coronal Mass Ejections Observed by \textit{STEREO}
• Observations of the Coronal Mass Ejection with a Complex Acceleration Profile
• Successive interacting coronal mass ejections: How to create a perfect storm?