Kinematic Properties of Slow ICMEs and an Interpretation of a Modified Drag Equation for Fast and Moderate ICMEs

Abstract

We report kinematic properties of slow interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) identified by SOHO/LASCO, interplanetary scintillation, and in-situ observations, and propose a modified equation for the ICME motion. We identify seven ICMEs between 2010 and 2011, and examine them with 39 events reported in our previous work. We examine 15 fast (V_SOHO - V_bg > 500 km/s), 25 moderate (0 km/s <= V_SOHO - V_bg <= 500 km/s), and 6 slow (V_SOHO - V_bg < 0 km/s) ICMEs, where V_SOHO and V_bg are the initial speed of ICMEs and the speed of the background solar wind, respectively. For slow ICMEs, we found the following results: i) They accelerate toward the speed of the background solar wind during their propagation, and reach their final speed by 0.34 (+-) 0.03 AU. ii) The acceleration ends when they reach 479 (+-) 126 km/s; this is close to the typical speed of the solar wind during the period of this study. iii) When k_1 and k_2 are assumed to be constants, a quadratic equation for the acceleration a = -k_2(V - V_bg)|V - V_bg| is more appropriate than a linear one a = -k_1(V - V_bg), where V is the propagation speed of ICMEs, while the latter gives a smaller chi-square value than the former. For the motion of the fast and moderate ICMEs, we found a modified drag equation. From the viewpoint of fluid dynamics, we interpret this equation as indicating that ICMEs with 0 km/s <= V - V_bg <= 2300 km/s are controlled mainly by the hydrodynamic Stokes drag force, while the aerodynamic drag force is a predominant factor for the propagation of ICME with V - V_bg > 2300 km/s.