Parametric study of the kinematic evolution of coronal mass ejection shock waves and their relation to flaring activity

Abstract

Context. Coronal and interplanetary shock waves produced by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are major drivers of space-weather phenomena, inducing major changes in the heliospheric radiation environment and directly perturbing the near-Earth environment, including its magnetosphere. A better understanding of how these shock waves evolve from the corona to the interplanetary medium can therefore contribute to improving nowcasting and forecasting of space weather. Early warnings from these shock waves can come from radio measurements as well as coronagraphic observations that can be exploited to characterise the dynamical evolution of these structures. Aims. Our aim is to analyse the geometrical and kinematic properties of 32 CME shock waves derived from multi-point white-light and ultraviolet imagery taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SoHO), and Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) to improve our understanding of how shock waves evolve in 3D during the eruption of a CME. We use our catalogue to search for relations between the shock wave’s kinematic properties and the flaring activity associated with the underlying genesis of the CME piston. Methods. Past studies have shown that shock waves observed from multiple vantage points can be aptly reproduced geometrically by simple ellipsoids. The catalogue of reconstructed shock waves provides the time-dependent evolution of these ellipsoidal parameters. From these parameters, we deduced the lateral and radial expansion speeds of the shocks evolving over time. We compared these kinematic properties with those obtained from a single viewpoint by SoHO in order to evaluate projection effects. Finally, we examined the relationships between the shock wave and the associated flare when the latter was observed on the disc by considering the measurements of soft and hard X-rays. Results. We find that at around 25 solar radii (R⊙), the shape of a shock wave is very spherical, with a ratio between the lateral and radial dimensions (minor radii) remaining at around b/a ≈ 1.03 and a radial to lateral speed ratio (VR/VL)≈1.44. The CME starts to slow down a few tens of minutes after the first acceleration and then propagates at a nearly constant speed. We revisit past studies that show a relation between the CME speed and the soft X-ray emission of the flare measured by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) and extend them to higher flare intensities and shock speeds. The time lag between the peak of the flare and of the CME speed is up to a few tens of minutes. We find that for several well-observed shock onsets, a clear correlation is visible between the derivative of the soft X-ray flux and the acceleration of the shock wave.