Constraining the CME Core Heating and Energy Budget with SOHO/UVCS

Abstract

We describe the energy budget of a coronal mass ejection (CME) observed on 1999 May 17 with the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS). We constrain the physical properties of the CME's core material as a function of height along the corona by using the spectra taken by the single-slit coronagraph spectrometer at heliocentric distances of 2.6 and 3.1 solar radii. We use plasma diagnostics from intensity ratios, such as the O VI doublet lines, to determine the velocity, density, temperature, and non-equilibrium ionization states. We find that the CME core's velocity is approximately 250 km/s, and its cumulative heating energy is comparable to its kinetic energy for all of the plasma heating parameterizations that we investigated. Therefore, the CME's unknown heating mechanisms have the energy to significantly affect the CME's eruption and evolution. To understand which parameters might influence the unknown heating mechanism, we constrain our model heating rates with the observed data and compare them to the rate of heating generated within a similar CME that was constructed by the MAS code's 3D MHD simulation. The rate of heating from the simulated CME agrees with our observationally constrained heating rates when we assume a quadratic power law to describe a self-similar CME expansion. Furthermore, the heating rates agree when we apply a heating parameterization that accounts for the CME flux rope's magnetic energy being converted directly into thermal energy. This UVCS analysis serves as a case study for the importance of multi-slit coronagraph spectrometers for CME studies.

References in corpus (21)

• Comprehensive Analysis of Coronal Mass Ejection Mass and Energy Properties Over a Full Solar Cycle
• CHIANTI - an atomic database for emission lines - Paper XV: Version 9, improvements for the X-ray satellite lines
• Observations and Interpretation of a Low Coronal Shock Wave Observed in the EUV by the SDO/AIA
• Sun-to-Earth MHD Simulation of the 14 July 2000 "Bastille Day" Eruption
• CME-CME Interactions as Sources of CME Geo-effectiveness: The Formation of the Complex Ejecta and Intense Geomagnetic Storm in Early September 2017
• Stereoscopic Analysis of the 19 May 2007 Erupting Filament
• Global Energetics of Solar Flares: I. Magnetic Energies
• Improved Constraints on the Preferential Heating and Acceleration of Oxygen Ions in the Extended Solar Corona
• On the nature of prominence emission observed by SDO/AIA
• Ion Charge States in Halo CMEs: What can we Learn about the Explosion?
• Three Dimensional Structure and Energy Balance of a Coronal Mass Ejection
• Plasma Heating During a Coronal Mass Ejection Observed by SOHO
• On the Remote Detection of Suprathermal Ions in the Solar Corona and their Role as Seeds for Solar Energetic Particle Production
• Modeling UV and X-Ray Emission in a Post-CME Current Sheet
• Exploring Plasma Heating in the Current Sheet Region in a Three-Dimensional Coronal Mass Ejection Simulation
• Heating of an erupting prominence associated with a solar coronal mass ejection on 2012 January 27
• On the Radial and Longitudinal Variation of a Magnetic Cloud: ACE, Wind, ARTEMIS and Juno Observations
• Global Energetics of Solar Flares: VI. Refined Energetics of Coronal Mass Ejections
• The Effect of Solar Wind Expansion and Non-Equilibrium Ionization on the Broadening of Coronal Emission Lines
• Ion Charge States in a Time-Dependent Wave-Turbulence-Driven Model of the Solar Wind
• The evolution of plasma parameters on a coronal source surface at 2.3 Rs during solar minimum

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Defining the Middle Corona
• A Coronal Mass Ejection followed by a prominence eruption and a plasma blob as observed by Solar Orbiter
• Dropouts of Fully Stripped Ions in the Solar Wind: A Diagnostic for Wave Heating versus Reconnection
• Solar CME Plasma Diagnostics Expressed as Potential Stellar CME Signatures
• On modeling ICME cross-sections as static MHD columns