Coronal mass ejection deformation at 0.1 au observed by WISPR
arXiv:2209.13057 · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac90bf
Abstract
Although coronal mass ejections (CMEs) resembling flux ropes generally expand self-similarly, deformations along their fronts have been reported in observations and simulations. We present evidence of one CME becoming deformed after a period of self-similarly expansion in the corona. The event was observed by multiple white-light imagers on January 20-22, 2021. The change in shape is evident in observations from the heliospheric imagers from the Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe Plus (WISPR), which observe this CME for 44 hours. We reconstruct the CME using forward-fitting models. In the first hours, observations are consistent with a self-similar expansion but later on the front flattens forming a dimple. Our interpretation is that the CME becomes deformed at due to differences in the background solar wind speeds. The CME expands more at higher latitudes, where the background solar wind is faster. We consider other possible causes for deformations, such as loss of coherence and slow-mode shocks. The CME deformation seems to cause a time-of-arrival error of 16 hours at . The deformation is clear only in the WISPR observations and, it thus, would have been missed by 1~AU coronagraphs. Such deformations may help explain the time-of-arrival errors in events where only coronagraph observations are available.
References in corpus (21)
- Comprehensive Analysis of Coronal Mass Ejection Mass and Energy Properties Over a Full Solar Cycle
- How Many CMEs Have Flux Ropes? Deciphering the Signatures of Shocks, Flux Ropes, and Prominences in Coronagraph Observations of CMEs
- Connecting speeds, directions and arrival times of 22 coronal mass ejections from the Sun to 1 AU
- Propagation of an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection in three dimensions
- Modeling observations of solar coronal mass ejections with heliospheric imagers verified with the Heliophysics System Observatory
- FRiED: A novel three-dimensional model of coronal mass ejections
- Quantitative Comparison of Methods for Predicting the Arrival of Coronal Mass Ejections at Earth based on multi-view imaging
- Speeds and arrival times of solar transients approximated by self-similar expanding circular fronts
- Forward modeling of coronal mass ejection flux ropes in the inner heliosphere with 3DCORE
- A STEREO Survey of Magnetic Cloud Coronal Mass Ejections Observed at Earth in 2008--2012
- Understanding the twist distribution inside magnetic flux ropes by anatomizing an interplanetary magnetic cloud
- ElEvoHI: a novel CME prediction tool for heliospheric imaging combining an elliptical front with drag-based model fitting
- In situ multi-spacecraft and remote imaging observations of the first CME detected by Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo
- Self-similar expansion of solar coronal mass ejections: implications for Lorentz self-force driving
- Overview of the remote sensing observations from PSP solar encounter 10 with perihelion at 13.3 Rsun
- WISPR Imaging of a Pristine CME
- Using Parker Solar Probe observations during the first four perihelia to constrain global magnetohydrodynamic models
- Analysis of coronal mass ejection flux rope signatures using 3DCORE and approximate Bayesian Computation
- Coronal mass ejections observed by heliospheric imagers at 0.2 and 1 au: the events on April 1 and 2, 2019
- Evolution of a Streamer-Blowout CME as Observed by Imagers on Parker Solar Probe and the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory
- Predicting the Time-of-Arrival of Coronal Mass Ejections at Earth From Heliospheric Imaging Observations
Cited by in corpus (6)
- On the Mesoscale Structure of CMEs at Mercury's Orbit: BepiColombo and Parker Solar Probe Observations
- Internal magnetic field structures observed by PSP/WISPR in a filament related coronal mass ejection
- Synthetic Remote-sensing and In-situ Observations of Fine-scale Structure in a Pseudostreamer Coronal Mass Ejection through the Solar Corona
- Resolving moving heliospheric structures using interplanetary scintillation observations with the Murchison Widefield Array
- Sequential Small Coronal Mass Ejections Observed In~situ and in White-Light Images by Parker Solar Probe
- Magnetic interaction analysis of multiple interplanetary coronal mass ejections leading to a historic geomagnetic storm in May 2024