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Paper: Investigating the Driving Mechanisms of Coronal Mass Ejections
Volume: 454, The 3rd Hinode Science Meeting
Page: 403
Authors: Lin, C.; Gallagher, P. T.; Raftery, C. L.
Abstract: The objective of this investigation was to first examine the kinematics of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) using EUV and coronagraph images, and then to make a comparison with theoretical models in the hope to identify the driving mechanisms of the CMEs. We have studied two CMEs which occurred on 2006 Dec. 17 (CME06) and 2007 Dec. 31 (CME07). The models studied in this work were catastrophe, breakout, and toroidal instability models. We found that after the eruption, the accelerations of both events exhibited a drop before increasing again. Our comparisons with the theories suggested that CME06 can be best described by a hybrid of the catastrophe and breakout models while CME07 is most consistent with the breakout model. Based on the catastrophe model, we deduced that the reconnection rate in the current sheet for CME06 was intermediate, the onset of its eruption occurred at a height of ∼200 Mm, and the Alfvén speed and the magnetic field strength at this height were ∼130–250 km s-1 and 7 Gauss, respectively.
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