Coronal mass ejections and magnetic clouds: Constraints set from their combined study

MANDRINI, C.H.

Rio de Janiero

Simposio; 11th Quadrienial Solar Terrestrial Physics Symposium - CAWSES; 2006

Scientific Committee on Solar Terrestrial Physics

   Coronal ejective events, in particular coronal mass ejections (CMEs), expel mass and magnetic field from the Sun into the interplanetary medium. An important subset of these transient interplanetary CMEs are known as magnetic clouds. These huge plasmoids are characterized by a strongly enhanced magnetic field intensity (with respect to ambient values), a smooth and large coherent rotation of the magnetic field vector, and a low proton temperature.  Several studies have shown the connection between magnetic clouds and their coronal source regions by a combined analysis of multi-wavelength remote sensing and in situ observations, together with magnetic field modeling. This link is based, in general, in the computation and comparison of magneto-hydrodynamic invariants in both domains.   We will discuss how this kind of analysis can be used to constrain models, both at the coronal level and in the interplanetary space.