A Statistical Study on Solar Active Regions Producing Extremely Fast Coronal Mass Ejections

We present a statistical result on the properties of solar source regions that have produced 57 fastest front-side coronal mass ejections (CMEs) (speed 1500 km/s) occurred from 1996 June to 2007 January. The properties of these fast-CME-producing regions, 35 in total, are compared with those of all 1143 active regions (ARs) in the period studied. An automated method, based on SOHO/MDI magnetic synoptic charts, is used to select and characterize the ARs. For each AR, a set of parameters are derived including the areas (positive, negative and total, denoted by A_P, A_N and A_T respectively), the magnetic fluxes (positive, negative and total, F_P, F_N and F_T respectively), the average magnetic field strength (B_avg), quasi-elongation (e) characterizing the overall shape of the AR, the number and length of polarity inversion lines (PILs, or neutral lines, N_PIL and L_PIL respectively), and the average and maximum of magnetic gradient on the PILs (GOP_avg and GOP_max respectively). Our statistical analysis shows a general trend between the scales of an AR and the likelihood of producing a fast CME, i.e., the larger the geometric size (A_T), the larger the magnetic flux (F_T), the stronger the magnetic field (B_avg), and/or the more complex the magnetic configuration (N_PIL and L_PIL), then the higher the possibility of producing a fast CME. When all ARs are sorted into three equally-numbered groups with low, middle and high values of these parameters, we find that, for all these AR parameters, more than 60% of extremely fast CMEs are from the high-value group. The two PIL parameters are the best indicators of producing fast CMEs, with more than 80% from the high value group.