Seminar: The Evolution of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections

Wednesday, November 17, 2021 - 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.


Speaker Emma Davies, a postdoctoral researcher in the UNH Space Science Center, will discuss "The Evolution of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections: Multi-spacecraft and Juno Observations Covering 0.3--5.4 AU."

 

Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) are the main drivers of severe space weather at Earth and thus understanding their evolution is of great interest in space weather modelling and arrival prediction at various targets throughout the solar system. To better understand ICME evolution in-situ, it is useful to track signatures of specific ICMEs over large heliocentric distances whilst spacecraft are close to radial alignment. Such studies of ICMEs are relatively rare but provide valuable insight into their properties, rotation, and expansion as they propagate through the heliosphere.

 

Most ICME studies focus on the inner heliosphere, utilizing planetary mission spacecraft as well as more recently launched dedicated spacecraft in the solar wind such as Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe. Planetary missions in their cruise phase can also be used to study ICMEs; cruise phase data of the Juno spacecraft provides the most recent and comprehensive opportunity to study ICME evolution beyond 1 AU. We present a catalogue of events identified by Juno between 2011 and 2016 and analyze these events to provide a statistical picture of ICME evolution. By tracking individual events back to the inner heliosphere, we use multi-spacecraft observations to assess their global and local expansion as they propagate, demonstrating the large variability of individual ICME properties and deviations from statistical relationships. Finally, we explore how interactions with other solar wind features may affect ICME evolution, illustrated by case studies utilizing multi-spacecraft observations at Solar Orbiter and Juno, respectively. 

 

Please join us via Zoom: https://unh.zoom.us/j/99595144430?pwd=ZXB1MTJxUHhremZNaEVHQ1FleDdCQT09 

Passcode: 424681