A Comparison of CME Arrival Time Estimations by the WSA/ENLIL Cone Model and an Empirical Model

In this work we have examined the performance of the WSA/ENLIL cone model provided by Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC). The WSA/ENLIL model simulates the propagation of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the Sun into the heliosphere. We estimate the shock arrival times at the Earth using 29 halo CMEs from 2001 to 2002. These halo CMEs have cone model parameters from Michalek et al. (2007) as well as their associated interplanetary (IP) shocks. We make a comparison between CME arrival times by the WSA/ENLIL cone model and IP shock observations. For the WSA/ENLIL cone model, the root mean square(RMS) error is about 13 hours and the mean absolute error(MAE) is approximately 10.4 hours. We compared these estimates with those of the empirical model by Kim et al.(2007). For the empirical model, the RMS and MAE errors are about 10.2 hours and 8.7 hours, respectively. We are investigating several possibilities on relatively large errors of the WSA/ENLIL cone model, which may be caused by cone model velocities, CME density enhancement factor, or CME-CME interaction.