Comments on the origins of coronal mass ejections

✍ Scribed by Murray Dryer

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 585 KB
• Volume: 169
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00190618

✦ Synopsis

Explicit delineation of the cause (or causes) of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) has eluded our understanding Ior several decades. More recently, their extension into interplanetary space has also attracted altention, particularly since the faster CMEs have been inferred to be associated with the more severe, non-recurrent, geomagnetic storms, tJ nderstanding the linkage of one phenomenon to the othcr requires improved monitoring of the manifestations of CMEs so Ihat post-launch tracking via remote-sensing (interplanelary scintillations) and/or in situ observations will be meaningful. A critical examination is made here of recent claims flint the single cause of CMEs lies in their close connection with large-scale, closed magnetic structures in the corona. Proponents of this position generally disregard or minimize an earliec proposed suggestion that the cause is to be found in the small-scale, complex activity within eruptive flares with or without eruptive prominences. It is proposed here that equal weight to a bimodal sel of causes should be considered. We also revisit a nmnber of comments, pro and con, on Ihe proposed 'solar flare myth' paracligm.