Overexpansion-dominated coronal mass ejection formation and induced radio bursts^⋆

¹ School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China
² Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics (Nanjing University), Ministry of Education, Nanjing, 210093, PR China
e-mail: xincheng@nju.edu.cn
³ Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Gottingen, 37077, Germany
⁴ Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy and Solar-Terrestrial Environment, and Institute of Space Sciences, Shandong University, Weihai, Shandong, 264209, PR China

Received: 15 June 2022
Accepted: 13 September 2022

Abstract

Aims. Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are the most fascinating explosions in the Solar System. Their formation is still not fully understood, however.

Methods. We investigated a well-observed CME on 2021 May 7 that showed a typical three-component structure and was continuously observed from 0 to 3 R_⊙ by a combination of SDO/AIA (0–1.3 R_⊙), PROBA2/SWAP (0–1.7 R_⊙), and MLSO/K-Cor (1.05–3 R_⊙). Furthermore, we compared the morphological discrepancy between the CME white-light bright core and the extreme-UV (EUV) blob. We finally explored the origin of various radio bursts that are closely related to the interaction of the CME overexpansion with a nearby streamer.

Results. An interesting finding is that the height increases of the CME leading front and of the bright core are dominated by the overexpansion during the CME formation. The aspect ratios of the CME bubble and bright core, quantifying the overexpansion, are found to decrease as the SO/STIX 4–10 keV and GOES 1–8 Å soft X-ray flux of the associated flare increases near the peaks. This indicates that the flare reconnection plays an important role in the first overexpansion. The CME bubble even undergoes a second overexpansion, although it is relatively weak, which is closely related to the compression with a nearby streamer and likely arises from an ideal magnetohydrodynamics process. Moreover, the CME EUV blob is found to be relatively lower and wider than the CME white-light bright core, which may correspond to the bottom part of the growing CME flux rope. The interaction between the CME and the streamer leads to two type II radio bursts, one that is drifting normally and another that is stationary, which are speculated to be induced by two different sources of the CME-driven shock front. The bidirectional electrons shown in series of C-shaped type III bursts suggest that the interchange reconnection is also involved during the interaction of the CME and streamer.