ION CHARGE STATES DETECTED IN SITU AT 1 AU PROVIDE CRUCIAL INSIGHT INTO THE HEATING AND EVOLUTION OF CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS (CMES). CHARGE STATES EVOLVE THROUGH IONIZATION AND RECOMBINATIONS UP TO 3 TO 6 SOLAR RADII FROM THE SUN AND FROZEN IN THEREAFTER. ANALYSIS OF OBSERVED CHARGE STATES DISTRIBUTION ALLOWS ONE TO RECONSTRUCT THE VARIOUS EPISODES OF HEATING AND EXPANSION OF CMES AT THEIR ERUPTION STAGE. SOME OF THESE CHARGE STATES ARE UNIQUELY GENERATED DURING MAGNETIC RECONNECTION AND OFFER A NOVEL OBSERVATIONAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING THIS PROCESS AND PARTICULARLY ITS ROLE IN ELECTRON HEATING AND ACCELERATION. .ELECTRON TEMPERATURE NEAR THE SUN DETERMINES THE CHARGE STATE DISTRIBUTION. THEREFORE THE CHARGE STATES AT 1 AU ARE A WAY OF INFERRING THE ELECTRON TEMPERATURE IN THE CME DURING THE ERUPTION WHERE HIGH CHARGE STATES INDICATE THE PRESENCE OF HIGH ELECTRON TEMPERATURES. CHARGE STATE DISTRIBUTIONS COMPLETELY UNLIKE THOSE EXPECTED IN CONDITIONS OF COLLISIONAL IONIZATION EQUILIBRIUM ARE FREQUENTLY OBSERVED IN CMES. FOR EXAMPLE FE OFTEN HAS A DOUBLE-PEAKED DISTRIBUTION WITH STRONG POPULATION AROUND FE 16+ AND FE 8+ CHARGE STATES. THIS DEPARTURE FROM EQUILIBRIUM CONTAINS INFORMATION ABOUT CME HEATING. PRODUCTION OF FE16+ REQUIRES ELECTRON TEMPERATURE 10 MK. RECONNECTION AT THE POST-ERUPTION CURRENT SHEET IS THE MOST LIKELY SOURCE OF HEAT FOR THE CME PLASMA UP TO HIGH TEMPERATURES AND HENCE THE HIGH CHARGE STATES DETECTED IN-SITU IN CMES. .OUR PRIMARY SCIENCE GOAL IN THE PROPOSED WORK IS TO DIAGNOSE PLASMA HEATING THROUGHOUT CME ERUPTION USING CHARGE STATES DISTRIBUTIONS MEASURED IN SITU AT 1 AU. THE PARTICULAR INTEREST IS TO UNDERSTAND AND QUANTIFY ELECTRON HEATING DURING RECONNECTION THROUGH MAGNETIC ISLANDS OR OUTFLOW SHOCKS IN CME-ASSOCIATED CURRENT SHEETS. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL HELP TO CONSTRAIN ENERGY BUDGET OF CMES BASED ON IN-SITU DETECTED IONIC CHARGE STATES. .TO ACHIEVE OUR SCIENCE GOALS WE WILL SIMULATE A SET OF CMES OF VARIOUS SPEEDS DETECTED BY ACE AND STEREO AND COMPARE MODELED CHARGE STATES WITH THE DATA. WE WILL USE A STATE-OF-THE-ART VISCO-RESISTIVE MHD MODELING FRAMEWORK HIFI WHICH ALLOWS TO IMPLEMENT DIFFERENT CME MODELS DISTINGUISH BETWEEN ION AND ELECTRON THERMAL TRANSPORT PROCESSES AND CONSIDER VARIOUS INITIAL CONDITIONS AND PLASMA PARAMETERS. WE WILL EMPLOY DIFFERENT MODELS FOR MAGNETIC DISSIPATION TO INVESTIGATE DIFFERENT RECONNECTION REGIMES IN THE CME-ASSOCIATED CURRENT SHEET. GIVEN THE TEMPERATURE AND DENSITY EVOLUTION OF A PLASMA PARCEL FROM MHD SIMULATION WE WILL COMPUTE CHARGE STATES OF VARIOUS IONS WITHIN CME EJECTA USING THE IONIZATION NON-EQUILIBRIUM MODEL. RESULTING CHARGE STATES DISTRIBUTION WILL BE COMPARED WITH THE DATA IN ORDER TO FIND THE CONDITIONS REPRODUCING IN-SITU OBSERVED CHARGE STATES. CMES TO BE CONSIDERED HAVE VALIDATED FE CHARGE STATES ALREADY AVAILABLE FROM ACE/SWICS AND STEREO/PLASTIC EXPERIMENTS. SUCH APPROACH WILL HELP TO DETERMINE AND QUANTIFY THE ENERGIZATION OF CME PLASMA DURING THE ERUPTION PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO THE RECONNECTION PROCESS AND ITS ROLE IN ELECTRON HEATING AS WELL AS PROBE CAPABILITY OF CME MODELS..UNDERSTANDING OF THE CME ERUPTION PROCESS IS CRUCIAL FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SOLAR ENERGETIC PARTICLES AND GEOMAGNETIC STORMS. PROPOSED RESEARCH ADDRESSES THE FIRST SCIENCE GOAL FROM THE HELIOPHYSICS DECADAL SURVEY: DETERMINE THE ORIGINS OF THE SUN`S ACTIVITY AND PREDICT THE VARIATIONS IN THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT. THE ROLE OF RECONNECTION PROCESS IN CME PLASMA HEATING TO BE EXPLORED WILL PROVIDE A VALUABLE SUPPORT TO THE FUTURE MISSIONS SOLAR PROBE PLUS AND SOLAR ORBITER IN THEIR STUDIES OF THE ORIGIN OF TURBULENCE AND PARTICLE HEATING AND ACCELERATION IN THE SOLAR WIND. .