Estimating the mass of CMEs from the analysis of EUV dimmings

CREMADES, H.; VÁSQUEZ, A.M.; BALMACEDA, L.A.; LÓPEZ, F.M.; NUEVO, F.A.

San Juan

Congreso; Towards Future Research on Space Weather Drivers; 2019

The determination of the mass of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) is usually performed using white-light coronagraphic data, by the Thomson scattering formulation. In this work, we propose a new methodology to estimate the mass of CMEs based on the analysis of mass loss from the associated dimming regions in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) low corona. Our work builds upon the combination of the temporal evolution of the mass of 32 white-light CMEs, with that of the mass evacuated from the associated dimmings. The mass of the CMEs in white-light is determined from COR2 coronagraphic data, while the mass evacuated in the EUV low corona is estimated using a differential emission measured (DEM) technique. The combined white-light and EUV analyses allows the quantification of an empirical function that describes the evolution of CME mass with height. We quantify the success of the method by calculating the relative error with respect to the mass of CMEs determined from white-light STEREO data, where the CMEs propagate close to the plane of sky. The median for the relative error in absolute values is around 30%. The proposed method does not rely on assumptions regarding CME size or distance to the observer´s plane of sky and is solely based on the determination of the mass evacuated in the low corona. Therefore, it represents a valuable tool to estimate the mass of Earth-directed events.