CME/Flare energy release
Abstract
The most spectacular and most energetic manifestations of solar activity are the giant disruptions of the Sun's magnetic field that give rise to CMEs and eruptive flares. These phenomena are important both for their impact on space weather and their implications for basic space physics. The SOHO and TRACE missions have given us new insights into the physical mechanisms that give rise to eruptive flares/CMEs and their associated filament ejections. The current theories and modeling of CMEs/flares will be reviewed. In particular, we will describe a recently developed model, "magnetic breakout", which postulates that the interaction of neighboring flux systems via magnetic reconnection leads to the sudden release of magnetic stress stored in strong fields lying near the bottom of the solar atmosphere. Both 2.5D and 3D numerical simulations of breakout will be presented. The model proposes a general mechanism for explosive energy release, which should be applicable to many astrophysical plasmas. This work was supported, in part, by NASA and ONR.
- Publication:
-
34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002cosp...34E.772A