Inversion solutions of the elliptic cone model for disk frontside full halo coronal mass ejections

Abstract

A new algorithm is developed for inverting six unknown elliptic cone model parameters from five observed CME halo parameters. It is shown that the halo parameter α includes the information on the coronal mass ejection (CME) propagation direction denoted by two model parameters. On the basis of the given halo parameter α, two approaches are presented to find out the CME propagation direction. The two-point approach uses two values of α observed simultaneously by COR1 and COR2 on board STEREO A and B. The one-point approach combines the value of α with such simultaneous observation as the location of CME-associated flare, which includes the information associated with CME propagation direction. Model validation experiments show that the CME propagation direction can be accurately determined using the two-point approach, and the other four model parameters can also be well inverted, especially when the projection angle is greater than 60°. The propagation direction and other four model parameters obtained using the one-point approach for six disk frontside full halo CMEs appear to be acceptable, though the final conclusion on its validation should be made after STEREO data are available. Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.