Plasma motion in crossed fields and halo-type coronal mass ejections

Abstract

Halo-type motions of plasma in the solar corona—so-called coronal mass ejections (CME)—are considered. This type of CME is relatively rare due to the requirement for a particular orientation of the magnetic-moment vector M (parallel to the line of sight). Variations in |M| may be due to the rapid motion of filaments with a characteristic time scale ≅103 s. The drifts in the crossed fields have speeds of ≅200–1000 km/s and can account for the basic features of the CME geometry.