Dependence of coronal mass ejection properties on their solar source active region characteristics and associated flare reconnection flux

TL;DR

This study investigates how the properties of coronal mass ejections relate to their solar source regions, revealing that CME speed and energy are strongly linked to magnetic reconnection flux and flux rope characteristics, aiding prediction of their impact.

Contribution

The paper introduces a comprehensive analysis connecting CME kinematics with source active region magnetic measures and flux rope properties, providing new empirical relationships for forecasting.

Findings

CME speed correlates strongly with magnetic reconnection flux.

Weak correlation between CME speed and active region size.

CME kinetic energy relates to intrinsic magnetic energy density.

Abstract

The near-Sun kinematics of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) determine the severity and arrival time of associated geomagnetic storms. We investigate the relationship between the deprojected speed and kinetic energy of CMEs and magnetic measures of their solar sources, reconnection flux of associated eruptive events and intrinsic flux rope characteristics. Our data covers the period 2010-2014 in solar cycle 24. Using vector magnetograms of source active regions we estimate the size and nonpotentiality. We compute the total magnetic reconnection flux at the source regions of CMEs using the post-eruption arcade method. By forward modeling the CMEs we find their deprojected geometric parameters and constrain their kinematics and magnetic properties. Based on an analysis of this database we report that the correlation between CME speed and their source active region size and global nonpotentiality is weak, but not negligible. We find the near-Sun velocity and kinetic energy of CMEs to be well correlated with the associated magnetic reconnection flux. We establish a statistically significant empirical relationship between the CME speed and reconnection flux that may be utilized for prediction purposes. Furthermore, we find CME kinematics to be related with the axial magnetic field intensity and relative magnetic helicity of their intrinsic flux ropes. The amount of coronal magnetic helicity shed by CMEs is found to be well correlated with their near-Sun speeds. The kinetic energy of CMEs is well correlated with their intrinsic magnetic energy density. Our results constrain processes related to the origin and propagation of CMEs and may lead to better empirical forecasting of their arrival and geoeffectiveness.