Simultaneous interplanetary scintillation and heliospheric imager observations of a coronal mass ejection

Description/Abstract

We describe simultaneous Interplanetary Scintillation (IPS) and STEREO Heliospheric Imager (HI) observations of a coronal mass ejection (CME) on 16 May 2007. Strong CME signatures were present throughout the IPS observation. The IPS raypath lay within the field-of-view of HI-1 on STEREO-A and comparison of the observations shows that the IPS measurements came from a region within a faint CME front observed by HI-1A. This front may represent the merging of two converging CMEs. Plane-of-sky velocity estimates based on time-height plots of the two converging CME structures were 325 kms−1 and 550 kms−1 for the leading and trailing fronts respectively. The plane-of-sky velocities determined from IPS ranged from 420 ± 10 kms−1 to 520 ± 20 kms−1. IPS results reveal the presence of micro-structure within the CME front which may represent interaction between the two separate CME events. This is the first time that it has been possible to interpret IPS observations of small-scale structure within an interplanetary CME in terms of the global structure of the event.