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Interplanetary acceleration of coronal mass ejections
Author(s) -
Gopalswamy N.,
Lara A.,
Lepping R. P.,
Kaiser M. L.,
Berdichevsky D.,
St. Cyr O. C.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1999gl003639
Subject(s) - coronal mass ejection , acceleration , physics , interplanetary spaceflight , solar wind , astrophysics , interplanetary medium , solar energetic particles , astronomy , plasma , classical mechanics , quantum mechanics
Using an observed relation between speeds of CMEs near the Sun and in the solar wind, we determine an “effective” acceleration acting on the CMEs. We found a linear relation between this effective acceleration and the initial speed of the CMEs. The acceleration is similar to that of the slow solar wind in magnitude. The average solar wind speed naturally divides CMEs into fast and slow ones. Based on the relation between the acceleration and initial speed, we derive an empirical model to predict the arrival of CMEs at 1 AU.