Propagation of CMEs in the interplanetary medium: Numerical and analytical results

Abstract

We study the propagation of coronal mass ejections (CMES) from near the Sun to 1 AU by comparing results from two different models: a 1-D, hydrodynamic, single-fluid, numerical model (González-Esparza et al., 2003a) and an analytical model to study the dynamical evolution of supersonic velocity's fluctuations at the base of the solar wind applied to the propagation of CMES (Cantó et al., 2002). Both models predict that a fast CME moves initially in the inner heliosphere with a quasi-constant velocity (which has an intermediate value between the initial CME velocity and the ambient solar wind velocity ahead) until a ‘critical distance’ at which the CME velocity begins to decelerate approaching to the ambient solar wind velocity. This critical distance depends on the characteristics of the CME (initial velocity, density and temperature) as well as of the ambient solar wind. Given typical parameters based on observations, this critical distance can vary from 0.3 to beyond 1 AU from the Sun. These results explain the radial evolution of the velocity of fast CMEs in the inner heliosphere inferred from interplanetary scintillation (IPS) observations (Manoharan et al., 2001, 2003, Tokumaru et al., 2003). On the other hand, the numerical results show that a fast CME and its associated interplanetary (IP) shock follow different heliocentric evolutions: the IP shock always propagates faster than its CME driver and the latter begins to decelerate well before the shock.