Statistical distributions of speeds of coronal mass ejections

Authors

V. Yurchyshyn, Big Bear Solar Observatory
S. Yashiro, The Catholic University of America
V. Abramenko, Big Bear Solar Observatory
H. Wang, New Jersey Institute of Technology
N. Gopalswamy, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-20-2005

Abstract

We studied the distribution of plane-of-sky speeds determined for 4315 coronal mass ejections (CMEs) detected by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO LASCO). We found that the speed distributions for accelerating and decelerating events are nearly identical and to a good approximation they can be fitted with a single lognormal distribution. This finding implies that, statistically, there is no physical distinction between the accelerating and the decelerating events. The lognormal distribution of the CME speeds suggests. that the same driving mechanism of a nonlinear nature is acting in both slow and fast dynamical types of CMEs.

Identifier

14544301815 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Astrophysical Journal

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1086/426129

e-ISSN

15384357

ISSN

0004637X

First Page

599

Last Page

603

Issue

1 I

Volume

619

Recommended Citation

Yurchyshyn, V.; Yashiro, S.; Abramenko, V.; Wang, H.; and Gopalswamy, N., "Statistical distributions of speeds of coronal mass ejections" (2005). Faculty Publications. 19805.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/fac_pubs/19805