Solar Sources of Coronal Mass Ejections

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are one of the important phenomena in space weather research. The SOHO/LASCO CME catalog has listed more than 29,000 CMEs since January 1996 and is extensively used in the community. The catalog provides the basic CME properties, e.g., speed, angular width, mass, and kinetic energy. However the CME source information is not included since it is difficult to examine the source of all CMEs listed in the CME catalog. Here we describe two special CME lists that include CME source information: (i) a list of wide CMEs whose angular width is ≥ 60⁰, and (ii) list of CMEs associated with ≥ C3.0 flares. To determine the source location, we use all available eruptive signatures near the surface, such as solar flares, filament eruptions, EUV waves, and coronal dimmings. The X-ray flare class and the flare start/peak times are also listed if available. We have assigned six confidence levels to the source identification: 0 - no source was identified, 5 - source was identified without doubt. We were able to identify the source locations of 6,870 wide CMEs out of 8,420 that occurred during 1996 to 2018. We found that 48% of wide CMEs originated from the active regions and 52% were from the quiet Sun. Solar flares and CMEs are closely related but there is no one-to-one correspondence. During 1996 to 2018, there are 7,658 ≥ C3 flares. From these, we find that ~90% of X-class, 50% of M-class, and 20% of C3-C9 class flares were associated with CMEs. Statistical relationship between the flares and the CMEs will be presented.