Low ionization state plasma in coronal mass ejections

Abstract

The Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory often observes low ionization state coronal mass ejection (CME) plasma at ultraviolet wavelengths. The CME plasmas are often detected in O VI (3 × 105K), C III (8 × 104K), Lyα, and Lyβ, with the low ionization plasma confined to bright filaments or blobs that appear in small segments of the UVCS slit. On the other hand, in situ observations by the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer on board Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) have shown mostly high ionization state plasmas in the magnetic clouds in interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) events, while low ionization states are rarely seen. In this analysis, we investigate whether the low ionization state CME plasmas observed by UVCS occupy small enough fractions of the CME to be consistent with the small fraction of ACE ICMEs that show low ionization plasma, or whether the CME plasma must be further ionized after passing the UVCS slit. To do this, we determine the covering factors of low ionization state plasma for 10CME events. We find that the low ionization state plasmas in CMEs observed by UVCS show average covering factors below 10%. This indicates that the lack of low ionization state ICME plasmas observed by the ACE results from a small probability that the spacecraft passes through a region of low ionization plasma. We also find that the low ionization state plasma covering factors in faster CMEs are smaller than in slower CMEs. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.