Magnetic structure and propagation of two interacting CMEs from the Sun to Saturn
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
One of the grand challenges in heliophysics is the characterization of coronal mass ejection (CME) magnetic structure and evolution from eruption at the Sun through heliospheric propagation. At present, the main difficulties are related to the lack of direct measurements of the coronal magnetic fields and the lack of 3D in-situ measurements of the CME body in interplanetary space. Nevertheless, the evolution of a CME magnetic structure can be followed using a combination of multi-point remote-sensing observations and multi-spacecraft in-situ measurements as well as modeling. Accordingly, we present in this work the analysis of two CMEs that erupted from the Sun on April 28, 2012. We follow their eruption and early evolution using remote-sensing data, finding indications of CME–CME interaction, and then analyze their interplanetary counterpart(s) using in-situ measurements at Venus, Earth, and Saturn. We observe a seemingly single flux rope at all locations, but find possible signatures of interaction at Earth, where high-cadence plasma data are available. Reconstructions of the in-situ flux ropes provide almost identical results at Venus and Earth but show greater discrepancies at Saturn, suggesting that the CME was highly distorted and/or that further interaction with nearby solar wind structures took place before 10 AU. This work highlights the difficulties in connecting structures from the Sun to the outer heliosphere and demonstrates the importance of multi-spacecraft studies to achieve a deeper understanding of the magnetic configuration of CMEs.
Date Issued
2021-11
Date Acceptance
2021-10-05
Citation
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 2021, 126 (11), pp.1-28
ISSN
2169-9380
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Start Page
1
End Page
28
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Volume
126
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
©2021. The Authors.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Sponsor
The Royal Society
The Royal Society
Identifier
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2021JA029770
Grant Number
UF150547
URF\R\211012
Subjects
0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences
0401 Atmospheric Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-10-14