Working Group 1

Data group led by Jie Zhang (USA) and Christian Mostl (Austria)

Scientific Objectives

• Identifying all Earth-Affecting ICMEs during the STEREO era (from 2007)
• Tracking these events from the Sun to the Earth, and fully measuring/characterizing/quantifying the properties/evolution from the Sun to the Earth
• Providing a comprehensive event database for statistical study, for creating empirical evolution/prediction model, for theoretical understanding, and for comparing/validating numerical models

Scientific Questions, Technique Approach/Methodology

• What are the criteria of Earth-affecting CMEs?

• How to measure 3-D geometric and kinematic properties of CMEs in the corona, e.g., FOVs of COR1, COR2 and HI-1?

      1) croissant modeling a la Thernisien et al. (software available in IDL SolarSoft: "rtsccguicloud")

• How to measure 3-D geometric and kinematic properties of CMEs far from the Sun, e.g., FOVs of HI-2?

      1) Geometrical modeling, approximating the CME front with geometrical shapes (points, circles).
      The IDL SolarSoft SATPLOT software can be used to extract and model 
      time-elongation tracks of CMEs from STEREO/COR2/HI1/HI2 Jmaps.

• How to reconstruct the 3-D structure of ICMEs from in-situ observations?

      flux rope modeling:
      1) minimum variance analysis 
      2) Grad-Shafranov method (non-force-free)
      3) force-free cylindrical flux ropes

• What is the cause of "stealth" CMEs, i.e., CMEs without clear surface signature?

• What is the cause of "problematic" ICMEs, i.e., ICMEs without clear CME counterparts near the Sun?