Estimation of the Three-Dimensional Space Speed of a Coronal Mass Ejection Using Metric Radio Data

Abstract

We present an independent method for obtaining the three-dimensional space speed of a coronal mass ejection in the lower solar atmosphere through ray-tracing analysis of the thermal radio counterpart of its frontal loop in the metric wavelength range. The scheme was tested on the halo event observed on 1998 January 21, obtaining an estimated space speed of 580 km s-1. We also separately calculated the speed along the line of sight and in the plane of the sky, obtaining values of ~318 and 485 km s-1, respectively.