Roles for Data Assimilation in Studying Solar Flares & CMEs

Solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are driven by the sudden release of free magnetic energy stored in electric currents the solar corona. While there is a consensus that free energy enters the corona from the solar interior, there is ongoing debate about the physical processes primarily responsible for transporting free energy into the corona and / or triggering its release once there. Since direct measurements of the coronal vector magnetic field, necessary to quantify coronal currents, are currently not feasible, it is hoped that modeling of the coronal field can improve our understanding of processes that drive the corona to flare and produce CMEs. Many coronal modeling efforts employ spectropolarimetric observations of the photosphere, which can be used to infer magnetic fields and flows there; the model then relates these photospheric measurements to coronal currents. Observations of coronal emission structures might also usefully inform coronal field models. Here, I will discuss different approaches to modeling the coronal magnetic field, using both photospheric and other data sets, and possible roles for data assimilation.