Influence of CME interaction on the Propagation of Interplanetary Shocks
Abstract
We studied a large number of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and their associated interplanetary (IP) shocks for the period 1996-2002, using white-light images from the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) on the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft and solar wind measurements from the Mass Time-of-Flight spectrometer (MTOF on SOHO) and Solar Wind Experiment (SWE on the WIND satellite) instrument. The 1-AU arrival times of the CME and its shock are obtained from the initial CME speed. We studied the influence of preceding CMEs on the propagation of the IP shocks. We note that the propagation characteristics of some of the fast CMEs and their shocks are modified by the interaction with the preceding CMEs. We also find that the arrival times of IP shocks show deviation from that of non-interacting cases. We use an empirical model to explain the change in the travel time of shocks. We also discuss other consequences in the solar wind caused by the CME interactions.
This work is supported by NASA living with a Star, NSF/SHINE (ATM 0204588), and AFOSR Programs.- Publication:
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AAS/Solar Physics Division Meeting #34
- Pub Date:
- May 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003SPD....34.0610M