Discrepancies in the Properties of a Coronal Mass Ejection on Scales of 0.03~au as Revealed by Simultaneous Measurements at Solar Orbiter and Wind: The 2021 November 3--5 Event

TL;DR

This study compares simultaneous measurements of a CME by Solar Orbiter and Wind, revealing significant spatial variations in magnetic and plasma properties over a small angular separation, impacting CME modeling and forecasting.

Contribution

It provides rare in situ measurements of the same CME at two closely aligned spacecraft, highlighting the importance of spatial variations in CME properties.

Findings

Significant differences in magnetic field components between the two spacecraft.

Speed profiles show higher speeds further from the Sun without compression signatures.

Forecasting errors increase with small angular separations, affecting CME prediction accuracy.

Abstract

Simultaneous in situ measurements of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), including both plasma and magnetic field, by two spacecraft in radial alignment have been extremely rare. Here, we report on one such CME measured by Solar Orbiter (SolO) and Wind on 2021 November 3--5, while the spacecraft were radially separated by a heliocentric distance of 0.13 au and angularly by only 2.2{\deg}. We focus on the magnetic cloud (MC) part of the CME. We find notable changes in the R and N magnetic field components and in the speed profiles inside the MC between SolO and Wind. We observe a greater speed at the spacecraft further away from the Sun without any clear compression signatures. Since spacecraft are close to each other and computing fast magnetosonic wave speed inside the MC we rule out temporal evolution as the reason on the observed differences suggesting that spatial variations over 2.2{\deg} of the MC structure are at the heart of the observed discrepancies. Moreover, using shock properties at SolO, we forecast an arrival time 2h30 too late for a shock that is just 5h31 away hours from Wind. Predicting the north-south component of the magnetic field at Wind from SolO measurements leads to a relative error of 55 %. These results show that even angular separations as low as 2.2{\deg} (or 0.03 au in arclength) between spacecraft can have a large impact on the observed CME properties, rising up the issue of the resolutions of current CME models and potentially affecting our forecasting capabilities.