Flux Rope Driven Coronal Waves / Mass Ejections

An X2.3 Solar Flare explosively drives a flux rope. Observations using the TRACE spacecraft (top) illustrate the progression of a wavefront which is apparently driven by the flux rope.

This wavefront is produced by the skirt of an expanding Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), which in turn is produced by a piston shock overlaying the erupting flux rope, and ultimately drives the CME.

CME can hit the Earth and our satellites with hazardous consequences, particularly fast CME which are often associated with large flares such as this X Class event.

Understanding the origins of coronal waves and their association with both flares and CME enables us to better understand the whole CME process, and thus be in a better position to prepare for particularly hazardous events.

(Top) The birth of the CME, the flux rope starts to erupt producing the wavefront, (Middle) Full sun image displaying the progression of the wavefront and CME towards the bottom left. (Bottom) successive images of the CME hurtling away from the sun