Development of an Automatic Detection Program of Halo CMEs

The front-side halo CMEs are the major cause for large geomagnetic storms. Halo CMEs can result in damage to satellites, communication, electrical transmission lines and power systems. Thus automated techniques for detecting and analysing Halo CMEs from coronagraph data are of ever increasing importance for space weather monitoring and forecasting. In this study, we developed the algorithm that can automatically detect and do image processing the Halo CMEs in the images from the LASCO C3 coronagraph on board the SOHO spacecraft. With the detection algorithm, we derived the geometric and kinematical parameters of halo CMEs, such as source location, width, actual CME speed and arrival time at 21.5 solar radii.