The eastward deflection of fast coronal mass ejecta in interplanetary space

Abstract

Previous work has shown that a bidirectional solar wind electron heat flux is one of the more prominent signatures of a coronal mass ejection event in the solar wind at 1 AU. Using ISEE 3 solar wind electron measurements obtained during 1978 and 1979, we have used this signature to identify the fast coronal mass ejecta driving 19 interplanetary shocks. In 17 of the 19 shock events an eastward deflection of the ejection plasma (apparent arrival from west of the sun) was observed. The average eastward deflection for all of the events was ∼3°, corresponding to a typical transverse velocity of ∼25 km/s. Usually an oppositely directed (i.e., westward) flow deflection of comparable magnitude was observed within the compressed ambient plasma ahead of the ejecta. The sense of these deflections—first westward within the compressed ambient plasma and then eastward within the ejecta—is the same as is observed near the leading edges of quasi‐stationary, corotating high speed streams. However, in contrast to the case of corotating streams, the west‐east flow reversal does not coincide with a local maximum in static pressure. No consistent flow deflection pattern perpendicular to the ecliptic has been observed for these events, and no similar deflections have been observed for ejecta (bidirectional electron heat flux events) traveling at the same speed as or slower than the ambient plasma ahead. We suggest that the preferred eastward deflection of these fast coronal mass ejecta is a consequence of solar rotation and the spiral geometry of the ambient solar wind.