• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.67-74
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• 2022

In this study, we perform a statistical investigation of the kinematic classification of 4,264 coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from 1996 to 2015 observed by SOHO/LASCO C3. Using the constant acceleration model, we classify these CMEs into three groups: deceleration, constant velocity, and acceleration motion. For this, we devise three different classification methods using fractional speed variation, height contribution, and visual inspection. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, the fractions of three groups depend on the method used. Second, about half of the events belong to the groups of acceleration and deceleration. Third, the fractions of three motion groups as a function of CME speed are consistent with one another. Fourth, the fraction of acceleration motion decreases as CME speed increases, while the fractions of other motions increase with speed. In addition, the acceleration motions are dominant in low speed CMEs whereas the constant velocity motions are dominant in high speed CMEs.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.139-145
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• 2006

We have made a comprehensive statistical study on the coronal mass ejections(CMEs) associated with helmet streamers. A total number of 3810 CMEs observed by SOHO/LASCO coronagraph from 1996 to 2000 have been visually inspected. By comparing their LASCO images and running difference images, we picked out streamer-associated CMEs, which are classified into two sub-groups: Class-A events whose morphological shape seen in the LASCO running difference image is quite similar to that of the pre-existing streamer, and Class-B events whose ejections occurred in a part of the streamer. The former type of CME may be caused by the destabilization of the helmet streamer and the latter type of CME may be related to the eruption of a filament underlying the helmet streamer or narrow CMEs such as streamer puffs. We have examined the distributions of CME speed and acceleration for both classes as well as the correlation between their speed and acceleration. The major results from these investigations are as follows. First, about a quarter of all CMEs are streamer-associated CMEs. Second, their mean speed is 413 km $s^{-1}$ for Class-A events and 371 km $s^{-1}$ for Class-B events. And the fraction of the streamer-associated CMEs decreases with speed. Third, the speed-acceleration diagrams show that there are no correlations between two quantities for both classes and the accelerations are nearly symmetric with respect to zero acceleration line. Fourth, their mean angular width are about $60^{\circ}$, which is similar to that of normal CMEs. Fifth, the fraction of streamer-associated CMEs during the solar minimum is a little larger than that during the solar maximum. Our results show that the kinematic characteristics of streamer-associated CMEs, especially Class-A events, are quite similar to those of quiescent filament-associated CMEs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.65.3-66
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• 2015

The determination of three dimensional parameters (e.g., radial speed, angular width, source location) of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) is very important for space weather forecast. To estimate these parameters, several cone models based on a flat cone or a shallow ice-cream cone with spherical front have been suggested. In this study, we investigate which cone model is proper for halo CME morphology using 33 CMEs which are identified as halo CMEs by one spacecraft (SOHO or STEREO-A or B) and as limb CMEs by the other ones. From geometrical parameters of these CMEs such as their front curvature, we find that near full ice-cream cone CMEs (28 events) are dominant over shallow ice-cream cone CMEs (5 events). So we develop a new full ice-cream cone model by assuming that a full ice-cream cone consists of many flat cones with different heights and angular widths. This model is carried out by the following steps: (1) construct a cone for given height and angular width, (2) project the cone onto the sky plane, (3) select points comprising the outer boundary, (4) minimize the difference between the estimated projection points with the observed ones. We apply this model to several halo CMEs and compare the results with those from other methods such as a Graduated Cylindrical Shell model and a geometrical triangulation method.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.24.1-24.1
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• 2008

We examine the eccentricity parameter (EP) of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). For this, we select 298 front-side CMEs from SOHO LASCO CMEs whose speed is larger than 1000km/s and angular width is greater than $120^{\circ}$ during from 1997 to 2007. These are thought to be the most plausible candidate of geoeffective CMEs. We examine the relation between CMEs eccentricity parameter and the minimum value of the Dst index. We find that strong geomagnetic storms (Dst < -200nT) are well correlated with the EP from the scattered plot. We also find that CMEs have high geoeffectiveness when they occurred near the center of the solar disk with the small EP and they have the small speed with the small EP. These results indicate that the CME EP also can be an important indicator to forecast CME geoeffectiveness such as Earthward direction parameter (Moon et al. 2005, Kim et al. 2008).

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2016

The coronagraph is an instrument that enables the investigation of faint features in the vicinity of the Sun, particularly coronal mass ejections (CMEs). So far coronagraphic observations have been mainly used to determine the geometric and kinematic parameters of CMEs. Here, we introduce a new method for the determination of CME temperature using a two filter (4025 Å and 3934 Å) coronagraph system. The thermal motion of free electrons in CMEs broadens the absorption lines in the optical spectra that are produced by the Thomson scattering of visible light originating in the photosphere, which affects the intensity ratio at two different wavelengths. Thus the CME temperature can be inferred from the intensity ratio measured by the two filter coronagraph system. We demonstrate the method by invoking the graduated cylindrical shell (GCS) model for the 3-dimensional CME density distribution and discuss its significance.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.61.4-62
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• 2017

In this study we have made a statistical investigation on the kinematic classification of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) using about 4,000 SOHO/LASCO CMEs from 1996 to 2015. For this we use their SOHO/LASCO C3 data and exclude all poor events. Using the constant acceleration model, we classify these CMEs into three groups: Acceleration group, Constant Velocity group, and Deceleration group. For classification we adopt four different methods: Acceleration method, Velocity Variation method, Height Contribution method, and Visual Inspection method. Our major results are as follows. First, the fractions of three groups depend on the method used. Second, the results of the Height Contribution method are most consistent with those of the Visual Inspection method, which is thought to be most promising. Third, the fractions of different kinematic groups for the Height contribution method are: Acceleration (35%), Constant speed (47%), and Deceleration (18%). Fourth, the fraction strongly depend on CME speed; the fraction of Acceleration decreases from 0.6 to 0.05 with CME speed; the fraction of Constant increases from 0.3 to 0.7; the fraction of Deceleration increases from 0.1 to 0.3. Finally we present dozens of CMEs with non-constant accelerations. It is found that about 40 % of these CMEs show quasi-periodic oscillations.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.37-37
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• 2004

It is well known that solar activity such as coronal mass ejections(CMEs) and flares is a direct driver of space weather. In this talk, we introduce its main physical characteristics and physical connections among CMEs(or flares) -Interplanetary(IP) shocks - interplanetary CMEs (or magnetic clouds) - geomagnetic storms. Specifically, solar activity is discussed in terms of space weather scales (R:Radio Blackout, S: Solar Radiation Storms, G: Geomagnetic Storms). (omitted)

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.9-24
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• 2009

We compare the relation among the annual distribution of sunspots: coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and geomagnetic storms and North-South asymmetry during solar cycle 23. For this purpose, we calculate correlation coefficients between (i) annual distribution and N-S asymmetry of CMEs - sunspots (ii) distribution of CMEs - occurrence number of geomagnetic storms (iii) distribution of sunspots - occurrence number of geomagnetic storms. We find that (i) the annual distribution of total CMEs has good correlation with distribution of annual average of sunspots but poor correlation with N-S asymmetry of sunspots, N-S asymmetry of CMEs has good correlation with N-S asymmetry of sunspots: (ii) total and N-S asymmetry of CMEs have poor correlation with occurrence number of geomagnetic storms, it's, however, well correlated with the classified groups of CMEs (Ap, Dst and an indices vs. fast CMEs($\upsilon$ > $1000kms^{-1}$), Dst index vs. Halo CMEs), and (iii) sunspot numbers and area are correlated with occurrence number of geomagnetic storms. We conclude that annual distribution of CMEs and sunspots have well correlated with geomagnetic storms, N-S asymmetry of CMEs and sunspots have poor correlated with the geomagnetic storms.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.115.1-115.1
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• 2012

The Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) observes low ionization state coronal mass ejection plasma at ultraviolet wavelengths. The CME plasmas are often detected in O VI ($3{\times}10^5K$), C III ($8{\times}10^4K$), $Ly{\alpha}$, and $Ly{\beta}$. Earlier in situ observations by the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) on board Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) have shown mostly high ionization state plasmas in interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICME) events, which implies that most CME plasma is strongly heated during its expansion in solar corona. In this analysis, we investigate whether the low ionization state CME plasmas observed by UVCS occupy small enough fractions of the CME volume to be consistent with the small fraction of ICMEs measured by ACE that show low ionization plasma, or whether the CME must be further ionized after passing the UVCS slit. To do this, we determine the covering factors of low ionization state plasma for 10 CME events. We find that the low ionization state plasmas in CMEs observed by UVCS show small covering factors. This result shows that the high ionization state ICME plasmas observed by the ACE results from a small filling factor of cool plasma. We also find that the low ionization state plasma volumes in faster CMEs are smaller than in slower CMEs. Most slow CMEs in this analysis are associated with a prominence eruption, while the faster CMEs are associated with X-class flares.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.54.1-54.1
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• 2018

For space weather forecast, it is important to determine three-dimensional parameters of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). To estimate three-dimensional parameters of CMEs, we have developed a full ice-cream cone model which is a combination of a symmetrical flat cone and a hemisphere. By applying this model to 12 SOHO/LASCO halo CMEs, we find that three-dimensional parameters from our method are similar to those from other stereoscopic methods. For several geoeffective CME events, we determine CME mass by applying the Solarsoft procedure (e.g., cme_mass.pro) to SOHO/LASCO C3 images. CME volumes are estimated from the full ice-cream cone structure. We derive CME mean density as a function of CME height for these CMEs, which are approximately fitted to power-law functions. We find that the ICME mean densities extrapolated from the power law functions, are correlated with their corresponding ICME ones in logarithmic scales.