Pseudo-automatic Determination of Coronal Mass Ejections' Kinematics in 3D

Author(s)

Braga, Carlos Roberto ; Dal Lago, Alisson ; Echer, Ezequiel ; Stenborg, Guillermo ; Souza de Mendonca, Rafael Rodrigues

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL; v. 842, n. 2 JUN 20 2017.
• Web of Science Citations: 2

Abstract

Coronal mass ejection (CME) events are among the main drivers of geomagnetic disturbances, and hence play a central role in the Sun-Earth system. Their monitoring and, in particular, the determination of their speed and direction of propagation are key issues for the forecasting of space weather near to Earth. We have implemented a method to track CME events in three dimensions by combining triangulation and tie-pointing analysis with a supervised computer vision algorithm. This novel approach does not rely on any geometric constraint, and eliminates the need for visual identification of the CME boundaries. We applied our method to 17 CME events observed simultaneously by the twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) COR2 coronagraph imagers from 2008 December to 2011 November in order to obtain their 3D kinematical characterization (i.e., the velocity vector) along with their morphological properties. About ten of these events have already been analyzed using other methodologies. In these cases, we carried out a thorough comparison with our results and found that, in spite of the different nature and spatial coverage range of the other methods with respect to CORSET3D, the majority of the results agree. We found, however, that three events exhibited discrepancies in the magnitude of the velocity vector, four in the longitudinal direction of propagation, and in only one case was there a discrepancy in latitude. The discrepancies appeared in those cases where quasi-simultaneous, quasi-colocated events were observed in the coronagraphs' fields of view. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/20594-0 - 1D and 2D analysis of geomagnetic storms precursors using the Gobal Muon Detector Network data
• Grantee: Rafael Rodrigues Souza de Mendonça
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 14/24711-6 - Study of coronal mass ejections and its corresponding interplanetary structures near the Earth
• Grantee: Carlos Roberto Braga
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• FAPESP's process: 13/02712-8 - Study of interplanetary magnetic structures using cosmic ray data from the global muon detector network
• Grantee: Carlos Roberto Braga
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 12/05436-9 - Study of coronal mass ejections and their interplanetary counterparts combining observations of ground cosmic ray detectors and coronagraphs
• Grantee: Carlos Roberto Braga
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 13/03530-0 - 1D and 2D analysis of geomagnetic storms precursors using the Gobal muon detector network data
• Grantee: Rafael Rodrigues Souza de Mendonça
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate