Determination of coronal electron density distributions by DH type II radio bursts and CME observations

  • Lee, Jae-Ok (School of Space Research, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Moon, Yong-Jae (School of Space Research, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Lee, Jin-Yi (Astronomy & Space Science, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Lee, Kyoung-Sun (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) ;
  • Kim, Rok-Soon (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute)
  • Published : 2015.04.10

Abstract

In this study, we determine coronal electron density distributions by analyzing DH type II radio observations based on the assumption: a DH type II radio burst is generated by the shock formed at a CME leading edge. For this, we consider 11 Wind/WAVES DH type II radio bursts (from 2000 to 2003 and from 2010 to 2012) associated with SOHO/LASCO limb CMEs using the following criteria: (1) the fundamental and second harmonic emission lanes are well identified; (2) its associated CME is clearly identified in the LASCO-C2 or C3 field of view at the time of type II observation. For these events, we determine the lowest frequencies of their fundamental emission lanes and the heights of their leading edges. Coronal electron density distributions are obtained by minimizing the root mean square error between the observed heights of CME leading edges and the heights of DH type II radio bursts from assumed electron density distributions. We find that the estimated coronal electron density distribution ranges from 2.5 to 10.2-fold Saito's coronal electron density models.

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