Green, Lucie M;
(2024)
Solar Coronal Mass Ejections.
In:
Physics.
Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.
Preview |
Text
Oxford_encyclopedia_CMEs_jan_2024.pdf - Accepted Version Download (12MB) | Preview |
Abstract
The Sun’s magnetized plasma atmosphere is the source of various forms of activity, the most dramatic of which are coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These ejections are a bulk expulsion of plasma and magnetic field that travel out into the heliosphere, causing space weather effects on any planetary environments that they interact with. The origin of CMEs lies in the free magnetic energy stored in the coronal magnetic field, and a catastrophic evolution of the magnetic field structure that involves ideal or non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic processes or both. The frequency of CMEs follows the 11-year solar activity cycle, indicating their origin in and near active regions at all evolutionary stages (i.e., from an active region’s emergence phase through the entirety of the decay phase). CMEs also originate in quiet sun filaments and coronal cavities. A particular magnetic field configuration known as a flux rope, which contains twisted magnetic fields and carries a volume current, is likely the key progenitor of CMEs.
| Type: | Book chapter |
|---|---|
| Title: | Solar Coronal Mass Ejections |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/acrefore/9780190871994.013.14 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190871994.013... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Suncoronal mass ejections, planetary environments, coronal magnetic field, sun filaments, coronal cavities, flux rope, heliosphere, magnetohydrodynamic processes |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10215015 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
