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Ion Charge States in CMEs: Prospects for STEREO

This research examines the ion charge states in coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and explores the prospects for using STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) to study these events. The study includes a sample of CMEs and analyzes their velocity profiles, ionization balance, and temperature evolution. The results show that most CMEs are sub-Alfvénic prior to freeze-in of charge states, indicating no shock and no solar energetic particle acceleration. The research also discusses the relevance of ion charge states to other issues, such as element abundances in CMEs and the spheromak CME expansion model.

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Ion Charge States in CMEs: Prospects for STEREO

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  1. Ion Charge States in CMEs: Prospects for STEREO • Martin Laming NRL • Cara Rakowski NRL • Susan Lepri U. Mich. • Angelos Vourlidas NRL

  2. Sample of CMEs from Rakowski et al. (2007), taken from Lynch (2006). All confirmed “flux rope” events except 2001 doy351, which is “classic breakout” (Ugarte Urra et al. 2007)

  3. Zhang & Dere (2006); typical CME velocity profile Most CMEs are sub-Alfvenic prior to freeze-in of charge states  no shock and no SEP acceleration to worry about.

  4. Equations for ionization balance and temperature evolution. Latest evaluation of ionization and recombination coefficients: Bryans et al. (2006) --- not the last word! Density ~ 1/r(2+VA/(VA+vr)), 107 - 108 cm-3 @ 1.5 RO Alfven speed VA ~ 1/r1/3, typically 1000 km/s @ 1.5 RO . .

  5. ACE Observations 2001 Dec 13 CME from http://www.srl.caltech.edu/ACE/ASC/level2/index.htmlMagnetic field extrapolation and magnetogram from http://tcrb.nrl.navy.mil/~iuu/cmehtml/ (courtesy Ignacio Ugarte-Urra)

  6. CME eruption from breakout (also from Lynch et al. 2004), reconnection ahead of event necessary to remove overlying magnetic field, reconnection behind not strictly necessary to achieve explosion, but needed to form postflare loops.

  7. Model charge state/temperature/density Evolution of O, Si, Fe for 2001 Dec 13 CME. Plasma is heated between 1.5 and 3.15 solar radii.

  8. Final Charge States, O, Si, Fe for 2001 Dec 13 ICME. Observations on left, model on right (50% core, 50% cavity).

  9. Flux rope evolution to 1 A.U.Riley & Crooker (2004) Substantial lateral expansion caused by pressure gradients and spherical expansion giving large cross section for ACE to “hit”. Velocity shear may lead to reconnection within flux rope, mixing core and cavity material (Schmidt & Cargill 2001).

  10. For STEREO Charge States… • CMEs with imaging in STEREO A and particles in STEREO B (easier to distinguish CME from CIR e.g. Brian Wood, 4/26/08 maybe the most interesting). • Reasonably fast, so that CME charge states differ from ambient solar wind; suggests also 2007/5/19, 2008/2/4, 2008/5/17… For Other Issues… • Can element abundances in CMEs be related to pre-CME loop? (FIP effect, He/H; Rakowski & Laming, work in progress) • Spheromak CME expansion model (Lyutikov)

  11. Conclusions • Thermal energy input = few times K.E. input; similar conclusion to analyses of UVCS data in Akmal et al. (2001) Ciaravella et al. (2001) • Timescale of thermal energy input comparable to SEP electron observations in e.g. 2003 Oct 28 event (e.g. Klassen et al. 2005)  similar source for both? • Full impact to be realized when analyses of charge states are correlated with investigations of source regions, coupled with realistic hydrodynamics for the CME expansion. Obvious topic for STEREO. • Many other interesting aspects to investigate in the fastest CMEs, connection to astrophysical shocks and particle acceleration.

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