Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1906.05804

Global Energetics of Solar Flares: VII. Aerodynamic Drag in Coronal Mass Ejections

Markus J. Aschwanden·Nat Gopalswamy
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The free energy that is dissipated in a magnetic reconnection process of a solar flare, generally accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME), has been considered as the ultimate energy source of the global energy budget of solar flares in previous statistical studies. Here we explore the effects of the aerodynamic drag force on CMEs, which supplies additional energy from the slow solar wind to a CME event, besides the magnetic energy supply. For this purpose we fit the analytical aerodynamic drag model of Cargill (2004) and Vrsnak et al.~{\bf (2013)} to the height-time profiles $r(t)$ of LASCO/SOHO data in 14,316 CME events observed during the first 8 years (2010-2017) of the SDO era {\bf (ensuring EUV coverage with AIA)}. Our main findings are: (i) a mean solar wind speed of $w=472 \pm 414$ km s$^{-1}$, (ii) a maximum drag-accelerated CME energy of $E_{drag} \lapprox 2 \times 10^{32}$ erg, (iii) a maximum flare-accelerated CME energy of $E_{flare} \lapprox 1.5 \times 10^{33}$ erg; (iv) the ratio of the summed kinetic energies of all flare-accelerated CMEs to the drag-accelerated CMEs amounts to a factor of 4; (v) the inclusion of the drag force slightly lowers the overall energy budget of CME kinetic energies in flares from $\approx 7\%$ to $\approx 4\%$; and (vi) the arrival times of CMEs at Earth can be predicted with an accuracy of $\approx 23\%$.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph.SR

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Markus J. Aschwanden, Nat Gopalswamy. 2019-06-13. Global Energetics of Solar Flares: VII. Aerodynamic Drag in Coronal Mass Ejections. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2Fab1b39

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Stellar characterization with photometric colors from J-PLUS and 2MASS surveys

Aims. We aim at deriving stellar atmospheric parameters based on the photometric data from the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) in addition to near-infrared photometry from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS). Methods. Our method consists of a semi-supervised machine learning approach based on the k-means method combined with a modified k-nearest neighbors algorithm. This method compares the observed photometry to a set of reference data to estimate the stellar effective temperature ($T_{\rm eff}$), surface gravity ($\log{g}$), and metallicity ([Fe/H]) of stars from J-PLUS Data Release 3 (DR3). Results. We estimated $T_{\rm eff}$, $\log{g}$, and [Fe/H], for approximately 5.6 million stars from J-PLUS DR3, along with their errors.Our results were in agreement with spectroscopic estimates from LAMOST and APOGEE.We also applied a dimension reduction method, seeking greater efficiency by reducing the computation time and minimizing the needed information for calculating the stellar parameters, resulting in a subset of 11 colors. From this approach, stellar parameters were obtained for approximately six million stars. Conclusions. Our results demonstrated the potential of using a method built from machine learning algorithms that do not require prior training. Additionally, it was shown that the proposed method allowed estimating reliable atmospheric parameters even when the available photometry did not fulfill all photometric quality criteria. We defined a neighborhood parameter, which assesses the reliability of our estimations and indicates that objects with smaller neighborhoods values have lower uncertainties.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2026

Population demographics of post-interaction WDMS binaries: From common envelope evolution to stable mass transfer

Close white dwarf (WD) + main-sequence (MS) binaries are end products of mass transfer (MT) that occurred prior to WD formation, making their population demographics a powerful probe of binary evolution. Several recent works have constructed samples of WD+MS binaries with well-understood selection functions using data from wide-field surveys. These include (a) AU-scale astrometric binaries from Gaia that can be shown to contain a WD on dynamical grounds, (b) AU-scale astrometric binaries in which a hot WD is detected through a GALEX UV excess, and (c) close binaries discovered through eclipses. Together, these samples probe outcomes of both stable MT and common-envelope evolution, and interactions on both the red giant branch (RGB) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB). We forward model the three observed samples simultaneously. This approach produces robust constraints on uncertain binary evolution parameters because binaries removed from one population are predicted to appear in another. Our modeling includes a realistic initial binary population and treatments of the selection effects affecting all samples. We confirm that MT from AGB donors requires a critical accretor-to-donor mass ratio of $\sim0.4$ as found in previous work, and find that this is more stable than MT from RGB donors, for which we constrain a critical ratio $\gtrsim0.65$. A common envelope efficiency of $αλ\sim0.3$ matches the relative numbers of close and wide systems and the period distribution of close systems. Most stable MT products in the sample, including those with RGB donors, retain nonzero eccentricities ($\simeq0.1$). The model does not fully reproduce the mass distribution of main-sequence stars in post-common envelope binaries, which shows a cliff below the fully convective limit, possibly pointing to missing physics that may warrant future work.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2026

The Solar Neighborhood LVI: The RMSTAR Catalog of the Nearest 3352 M Dwarf Systems and 305 of their Wide Companions

We present the RMSTAR (RECONS M STAR) catalog, a 25 pc volume-limited and effectively volume-complete sample of the nearest 3352 M dwarf systems and their 305 wide stellar and 9 brown dwarf companions. RMSTAR has been created using only results from Gaia Data Releases 3 (GDR3) and 2 (GDR2), Hipparcos, and ground-based discoveries of M dwarf systems that are not available in the space-based results. The wide companions are identified using only results from GDR3 and GDR2, and have separations $ρ\ge0.''46$. There are 291 primaries with stellar companions, yielding a multiplicity rate of 8.68$\pm$0.49% for these widely separated systems, with a rate of 6.86$\pm$0.44% for projected separations $s\geq30$ au, where the sample of stellar companions is complete except perhaps for a few fringe cases. It is shown that the rate of stellar companions increases from the search limit of 30,000 au down to separations of 30 au, with a large set of companions to be characterized at closer separations in future work. We determine luminosity and mass functions for all stellar red dwarfs and their wide secondaries, finding that the luminosity function displays a classic turnover at $M_G\sim11$, whereas the mass function is described by an exponential function that rises from 0.60 M$_{\odot}$ to the end of the stellar main sequence at 0.075 M$_{\odot}$. We assess the large population of close, unresolved companions to M dwarfs by analyzing several Gaia parameters, identifying 1089 (30%) individual sources as having at least one of these elevated unresolved companion indication parameters.

astro-ph.SR↗