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[72.04] A Statistical Study on the Acceleration of CMEs

J. Zhang (George Mason University)

We present a statistical study on the true acceleration of CMEs. The coronagraph observations of CMEs in the outer corona often show CME propagating at a near-constant speed, or minor acceleration/deceleration. The true acceleration, during which a CME gains its full speed, mostly occurs in the inner corona behind coronagraph occulters and thus is not observable. Because of this observational constraint, there is so far no good statistics on CME true acceleration, though several exceptional cases have been reported. In this study, we plan to exploit the recent findings on the time coincidence rule between CMEs and flares, that is the CME acceleration time closely related with the flux rise time of the associated soft X-ray flare. With the observations of CME final velocity in the outer corona and the proxy of the CME acceleration time, we are able to calculate the acceleration for a large number of CMEs. The statistical distribution of CME acceleration (ranged from a few m/s/s to several thousand m/s/s) will be presented and discussed.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: jiez@scs.gmu.edu

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
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