A High-Speed Erupting-Prominence CME: A Bridge Between Types

Abstract

Several studies have indicated that there may be two distinct types of coronal mass ejections (CMEs); a high-velocity bright energetic type associated with flares, and a smaller slower less impressive type associated with erupting prominences. How valid is this distinction? We analyze a CME combining attributes of both types, a high-velocity bright CME associated with an erupting prominence. A study of this event and several others allows us to argue that the apparent differences separating the two types may be an observational effect. Our results are consistent with a single CME process for both flare-associated and filament-associated CMEs. This process consists of three stages. The initial stage is brought about by the emergence of new magnetic flux, which interacts with the pre-existing magnetic configuration and results in a slow rise of the magnetic structure, which later becomes the CME. The second stage is a fast reconnection phase with flaring and a sudden increase of the rise velocity of the magnetic structure. It also includes a rapidly increasing CME acceleration followed by a rapidly falling acceleration. The third stage or CME propagation stage shows only slow changes in the acceleration and finally the velocity becomes constant. LASCO observes only the third stage. The differences found between observed flare-associated and prominence-associated CME velocity behavior appear to be primarily due to the relative heights in the corona at which the erupting structures form.