The solar flare myth in solar-terrestrial physics

Abstract

Early observations of associations between solar flares and large non- recurrent geomagnetic storms, large {open_quote}solar{close_quote} energetic particle events, and transient shock wave disturbances in the solar wind led to a paradigm of cause and effect that gave flares a central position in the chain of events leading from solar activity to major transient disturbances in the near-earth space environment. However, research in the last two decades shows that this emphasis on flares is misplaced. In this paper the author outlines briefly the rationale for a different paradigm of cause and effect in solar- terrestrial physics that removes solar flares from their central position as the {open_quote}cause{close_quote} of major disturbances in the near-earth space environment. Instead, this central role of {open_quote}cause{close_quote} is played by events now known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs.