Near-Sun Speed of CMEs and the Magnetic Non-potentiality of their Source Active Regions

Abstract

We show that the speed of the fastest coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that an active region (AR) can produce can be predicted from a vector magnetogram of the AR. This is shown by logarithmic plots of CME speed (from the SOHO LASCO CME catalog) versus each of ten AR-integrated magnetic parameters (AR magnetic flux, three different AR magnetic-twist parameters, and six AR free-magnetic-energy proxies) measured from the vertical and horizontal field components of vector magnetograms (from the {\it Solar Dynamics Observatory's Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager}) of the source ARs of 189 CMEs. These plots show: (1) the speed of the fastest CMEs that an AR can produce increases with each of these whole-AR magnetic parameters, and (2) that one of the AR magnetic-twist parameters and the corresponding free-magnetic-energy proxy each determine the CME-speed upper-limit line somewhat better than any of the other eight whole-AR magnetic parameters.

8 pages, 3 figures, to appear in GRL

References in corpus (4)

• Driving major solar flares and eruptions: a review
• Numerical simulations of fast and slow coronal mass ejections
• Spatial Relationship between Solar Flares and Coronal Mass Ejections
• The Relationship Between the Expansion Speed and Radial Speed of CMEs Confirmed Using Quadrature Observations of the 2011 February 15 CME

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Dependence of coronal mass ejection properties on their solar source active region characteristics and associated flare reconnection flux
• A new method to quantify and reduce projection error in whole-solar-active-region parameters measured from vector magnetograms
• Connecting Coronal Mass Ejections to their Solar Active Region Sources: Combining Results from the HELCATS and FLARECAST Projects
• The role of flux cancellation in eruptions from bipolar active regions
• Which Photospheric Characteristics are Most Relevant to Active-Region Coronal Mass Ejections?
• Statistical Relation between Solar Flares and Coronal Mass Ejections with Respect to Sigmoidal Structures in Active Regions
• A Sun-to-Earth analysis of magnetic helicity of the 17-18 March 2013 interplanetary coronal mass ejection