Development of a Fast CME and Properties of a Related Interplanetary Transient

Abstract

We study the development of a coronal mass ejection (CME) caused by a prominence eruption on 24 February 2011 and properties of a related interplanetary CME (ICME). The prominence destabilized, accelerated, and produced an M3.5 flare, a fast CME, and a shock wave. The eruption at the east limb was observed in quadrature by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and by the Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) instrument suite on board the Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO). The ICME produced by the SOL2011-02-24 event was measured in situ on STEREO-B two days later. The diagnostics made from multi-wavelength SDO/AIA images reveals a pre-eruptive heating of the prominence to about 7 MK and its subsequent heating during the eruption by flare-accelerated particles to about 10 MK. The hot plasma was detected in the related ICME as an enhancement in the ionic charge state of Fe, whose evolution was reproduced in the modeling. The analysis of the solar source region allows for predicting the variations of magnetic components in the ICME, while the flux-rope rotation by about $40^{\circ }$ was indicated by observations. The magnetic-cloud propagation appears to be ballistic.