AIP Conference Proceedings 1216, 408−411, 2010
Proc. Solar Wind Twelve
M. Maksimovic, K. Issautier, N. Meyer-Vernet, M. Moncuquet, F. Pantellini (eds.)
© American Institute of Physics
Tracking Nonradial Motions and Azimuthal Expansions of Interplanetary CMEs with
the Solar Mass Ejection Imager
S. Kahler
Space Vehicles Directorate, AFRL/RVBXS, Hanscom AFB, MA
D. Webb
Inst. for Scientific Research, Boston College, Boston MA
Abstract
The trajectories of interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs) are modified by their
interactions with solar wind streams. These interactions can result in
non-radial deflections of ICME trajectories and changes to their rates of
azimuthal expansion. The Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI), launched earlier in
2003 January, has provided heliospheric images of several hundred ICMEs during
the declining portion of solar cycle 23. We selected three SMEI ICMEs, each
traversing a range of solar elongation angles ε > 20°, and measured the
time changes of their leading-edge profiles plotted against position angle,
PA. The parabolic fits to those profiles yielded the propagation directions of
the ICMEs as well as their leading-edge curvatures and time profiles. The
selected ICMEs were associated with LASCO CMEs, so we tracked the PA variations
in their propagation over 1 to 3-day periods. We found good fits for two of the
ICMEs, but one yielded generally poor fits.