Energization of Rotating Sunspots, Twisted Coronal Fans, Sigmoid Structures, and Coronal Mass Ejections

In an on-going study, several sunspots, rotating about their umbral centers, have been identified in TRACE photospheric white light (WL) images with accompanying twisting of coronal fans connected to penumbral magnetic field lines in the corresponding EUV (171, 195 Å) images. These observations can also be temporally and spatially associated with S or inverse-S shaped regions (sigmoid structures) appearing in Yohkoh SXT images and with concurrent coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and/or flares. We have determined the rotational speed of the sunspot in AR9114 over 8-10 August 2000, established the inverse-S shape observed in the SXT data, and viewed a rapid flash of possible reconnection in a TRACE EUV movie. A CME was observed in AR8667 during the 15-18 August 1999 event, which also included an inverse-S shaped region in the SXT data, and a rotating sunspot and twisting coronal fans in the TRACE data. The large Bastille Day CME event of 14 July 2000 in AR9077 was accompanied by one or more rotating sunspots as observed in TRACE WL and by an inverse-S shaped region as seen in a difference SXT image. We will utilize these data to estimate the energization of the twisted coronal fans resulting from the sunspot rotation and compare this with the temporal evolution of the sigmoid structures. We will investigate the possibility of a direct role of the observed sunspot rotation and the potential for a sigmoid to erupt as a CME. This work was supported by NASA under contract NAS5-38099.