Global Energetics of Solar Flares. VI. Refined Energetics of Coronal Mass Ejections

Abstract

In this study, we refine the coronal mass ejection (CME) model that was presented in an earlier study of the global energetics of solar flares and associated CMEs and apply it to all (860) GOES M- and X-class flare events observed during the first seven years (2010–2016) of the Solar Dynamics Observatory ( SDO ) mission. The model refinements include (1) the CME geometry in terms of a 3D volume undergoing self-similar adiabatic expansion, (2) the solar gravitational deceleration during the propagation of the CME, which discriminates between eruptive and confined CMEs, (3) a self-consistent relationship between the CME center-of-mass motion detected during EUV dimming and the leading-edge motion observed in white-light coronagraphs, (4) the equipartition of the CME’s kinetic and thermal energies, and (5) the Rosner–Tucker–Vaiana scaling law. The refined CME model is entirely based on EUV-dimming observations (using Atmospheric Imager Assembly (AIA)/ SDO data) and complements the traditional white-light scattering model (using Large-Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO)/ Solar and Heliospheric Observatory data), and both models are independently capable of determining fundamental CME parameters. Comparing the two methods, we find that (1) LASCO is less sensitive than AIA in detecting CMEs (in 24% of the cases), (2) CME masses below g are underestimated by LASCO, (3) AIA and LASCO masses, speeds, and energies agree closely in the statistical mean after the elimination of outliers, and (4) the CME parameters speed v , emission measure-weighted flare peak temperature T e , and length scale L are consistent with the following scaling laws: , , and .