Radial evolution of the April 2020 stealth coronal mass ejection between 0.8 and 1 AU

Comparison of Forbush decreases at Solar Orbiter and near the Earth^⋆

¹ Institut für Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, 24098 Kiel, Germany
e-mail: forstner@physik.uni-kiel.de
² Now at: Paradox Cat GmbH, Brienner Str. 53, 80333 München, Germany
³ Hvar Observatory, Faculty of Geodesy, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
⁴ Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz, Austria
⁵ School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, PR China
⁶ CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, Hefei, PR China
⁷ Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS), National Observatory of Athens, Athens, Greece
⁸ Space Research Group, Universidad de Alcalá, 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Spain
⁹ Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation, Russian Academy of Sciences (IZMIRAN), Troitsk, Moscow, Russia
¹⁰ Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
¹¹ Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA
¹² Now at: DSI Datensicherheit GmbH, Rodendamm 34, 28816 Stuhr, Germany
¹³ Now at: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Platanenallee 6, 15738 Zeuthen, Germany
¹⁴ Now at: Department of Extrasolar Planets and Atmospheres, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Berlin, Germany
¹⁵ Now at: Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
¹⁶ Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

Received: 4 November 2020
Accepted: 20 February 2021

Abstract

Aims. We present observations of the first coronal mass ejection (CME) observed by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft on April 19, 2020 and the associated Forbush decrease (FD) measured by the High Energy Telescope (HET). This CME is a multi-spacecraft event that was also seen near Earth the following day.

Methods. We highlight the capabilities of the HET for observing small short-term variations of the galactic cosmic ray count rate using its single detector counters. We applied the analytical ForbMod model to the FD measurements to reproduce the Forbush decrease at both locations. Input parameters for the model were derived from both in situ and remote-sensing observations of the CME.

Results. The very slow (∼350 km s⁻¹) stealth CME caused an FD with an amplitude of 3% in the low-energy cosmic ray measurements at HET and 2% in a comparable channel of the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, as well as a 1% decrease in neutron monitor measurements. Significant differences are observed in the expansion behavior of the CME at different locations, which may be related to influence of the following high speed solar wind stream. Under certain assumptions, ForbMod is able to reproduce the observed FDs in low-energy cosmic ray measurements from HET as well as CRaTER, however, with the same input parameters, the results do not agree with the FD amplitudes at higher energies measured by neutron monitors on Earth. We study these discrepancies and provide possible explanations.

Conclusions. This study highlights the notion that the novel measurements of Solar Orbiter can be coordinated with observations from other spacecraft to improve our understanding of space weather in the inner heliosphere. Multi-spacecraft observations combined with data-based modeling are also essential for understanding the propagation and evolution of CMEs, in addition to their space weather impacts.