The relationship of coronal mass ejections to streamers

Abstract

We have examined images from the Large‐Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) to study the relationship of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) to coronal streamers. We wish to test the suggestion [Low, 1996] that CMEs arise from flux ropes embedded in a streamer erupting and disrupting the streamer. The data span a period of 2 years near Sunspot minimum through a period of increased activity as Sunspot numbers increased. We have used LASCO data from the C2 coronagraph which records Thomson scattered white light from coronal electrons at heights between 1.5 and 6Rs. Maps of the coronal streamers have been constructed from LASCO C2 observations at a height of 2.5Rs at the east and west limbs. We have superposed the corresponding positions of CMEs observed with the C2 coronagraph onto the synoptic maps. We identified the different kinds of signatures CMEs leave on the streamer structure at this height (2.5Rs). We find four types of CMEs with respect to their effect on streamers: 1. CMEs that disrupt the streamer, 2. CMEs that have no effect on the streamer, even though they are related to it, 3. CMEs that create streamer‐like structures and 4. CMEs that are latitudinally displaced from the streamer. CMEs in categories 3 and 4 are not related to the streamer structure. This is the most extensive observational study of the relation between CMEs and streamers to date. Previous studies using SMM data have made the general statement that CMEs are mostly associated with streamers and that they frequently disrupt it. However, we find that approximately 35% of the observed CMEs bear no relation to the preexisting streamer, while 46% have no effect on the observed streamer, even though they appear to be related to it. Our conclusions thus differ considerably from those of previous studies.