Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of Narrow Coronal Mass Ejections

Abstract

We present Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) observations of five narrow coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that were among 15 narrow CMEs originally selected by Gilbert and coworkers. Two events (1999 March 27, April 15) were ``structured,'' i.e., in white-light data they exhibited well-defined interior features, and three (1999 May 9, May 21, June 3) were ``unstructured,'' i.e., appeared featureless. In UVCS data the events were seen as 4°-13° wide enhancements of the strongest coronal lines H I Lyα and O VI λλ1032, 1037. We derived electron densities for several of the events from the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO) C2 white-light observations. They are comparable to or smaller than densities inferred for other CMEs. We modeled the observable properties of examples of the structured (1999 April 15) and unstructured (1999 May 9) narrow CMEs at different heights in the corona between 1.5 and 2 R_solar. The derived electron temperatures, densities, and outflow speeds are similar for those two types of ejections. They were compared with properties of polar coronal jets and other CMEs. We discuss different scenarios of narrow CME formation as either a jet formed by reconnection onto open field lines or a CME ejected by expansion of closed field structures. Overall, we conclude that the existing observations do not definitively place the narrow CMEs into the jet or the CME picture, but the acceleration of the 1999 April 15 event resembles acceleration seen in many CMEs, rather than constant speeds or deceleration observed in jets.