Coronal mass ejection deformation at 0.1 au observed by WISPR

TL;DR

This study documents the deformation of a coronal mass ejection at 0.1 au observed by WISPR, highlighting how background solar wind variations can cause shape changes affecting arrival time predictions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed observation and analysis of CME deformation at 0.1 au, linking shape changes to solar wind speed differences and improving understanding of CME propagation.

Findings

CME deformation occurs at ~0.1 au due to solar wind speed differences.

Deformation causes a 16-hour error in arrival time predictions.

Deformations are detectable only by WISPR, not by 1 AU coronagraphs.

Abstract

Although coronal mass ejections (CMEs) resembling flux ropes generally expand self-similarly, deformations along their fronts have been reported in observations and simulations. We present evidence of one CME becoming deformed after a period of self-similarly expansion in the corona. The event was observed by multiple white-light imagers on January 20-22, 2021. The change in shape is evident in observations from the heliospheric imagers from the Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe Plus (WISPR), which observe this CME for $\sim$ 44 hours. We reconstruct the CME using forward-fitting models. In the first hours, observations are consistent with a self-similar expansion but later on the front flattens forming a dimple. Our interpretation is that the CME becomes deformed at $\sim0.1\ au$ due to differences in the background solar wind speeds. The CME expands more at higher latitudes, where the background solar wind is faster. We consider other possible causes for deformations, such as loss of coherence and slow-mode shocks. The CME deformation seems to cause a time-of-arrival error of 16 hours at $\sim 0.5\ au$. The deformation is clear only in the WISPR observations and, it thus, would have been missed by 1~AU coronagraphs. Such deformations may help explain the time-of-arrival errors in events where only coronagraph observations are available.