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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH,
VOL. 111,
A04105,
doi:10.1029/2005JA011349,
2006
Tracking halo coronal mass ejections from 0–1 AU and space weather forecasting using the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI)
T. A. Howard
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, UK
D. F. Webb
ISR, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA
S. J. Tappin
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, UK
D. R. Mizuno
ISR, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA
J. C. Johnston
Space Weather Center of Excellence, Air Force Research Laboratory, Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, USA
Abstract
The Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) has been tracking coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the Sun to the Earth and beyond
since it came online in February 2003. This paper presents some results from the first 19 months of data from SMEI, when over
140 transients of many kinds were observed in SMEI's all-sky cameras. We focus specifically on 20 earthward directed transients,
and compare distance-time plots obtained from the SMEI transients with those observed in halo CMEs by Large-Angle Spectrometric
Coronograph (LASCO) aboard Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), and the arrival time of the shock observed by ACE at
0.99 AU. The geometry of one particular transient is compared using both LASCO and SMEI images in a first attempt to investigate
geometry evolution as the transient propagates through the interplanetary medium. For some events, the halo CME, SMEI transient,
and shock at 0.99 AU do not match, suggesting that some transients may not correspond to a halo CME. Finally, an evaluation
of the potential of SMEI to be used as a predictor of space weather is presented, by comparing the transients observed in
SMEI with the 22 geomagnetic storms which occurred during this timeframe. A transient was observed in 14 cases, and distance-time
profiles would have allowed a prediction of the arrival time at ACE within 2 hours of its actual arrival for three events,
and within 10 hours for eight events. Of these eight events, seven were detected by SMEI more than 1 day before the transient's
arrival at the Earth.
Received 3
August
2005;
accepted 26
January
2006;
published 29
April
2006.
Keywords: CMEs;
interplanetary transients;
space weather.
Index Terms: 2139 Interplanetary Physics: Interplanetary shocks; 2101 Interplanetary Physics: Coronal mass ejections (7513); 2169 Interplanetary Physics: Solar wind sources; 7924 Space Weather: Forecasting (2722); 7954 Space Weather: Magnetic storms (2788).
Read Full Article (file size: 727706 bytes) Cited by
Citation: Howard, T. A., D. F. Webb, S. J. Tappin, D. R. Mizuno, and J. C. Johnston
(2006),
Tracking halo coronal mass ejections from 0–1 AU and space weather forecasting using the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI),
J. Geophys. Res.,
111,
A04105,
doi:10.1029/2005JA011349.
Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.
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