HR: 08:15h
AN: SH11C-02 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Catastrophe Model of Solar Eruptions and the Observational Consequences
AU: * Lin, J
EM: jlin@cfa.harvard.edu
AF: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 United States
AB: The continual emergence of new magnetic flux from the convection zone and the movement of the footpoints of closed coronal magnetic configurations cause stress and energy to build up in the coronal magnetic field. Eventually, the stress and energy exceed the threshold beyond which a stable equilibrium in the configuration can no longer be maintained, so the magnetic structure erupts. The catastrophic loss of equilibrium in the system accounts for triggering such an eruption. Magnetic reconnection may help the catastrophe to occur more easily, but it is not necessary for the loss of equilibrium. Following the catastrophe, on the other hand, magnetic reconnection plays an essential role in assisting the loss of equilibrium to smoothly develop a plausible eruption by converting the magnetic energy previously stored in the system into heat and kinetic energy at a reasonable rate. The energy conversion via magnetic reconnection directly produces the separating, bright flare ribbons on the solar surface, flare loops growing in the corona, and rapidly expanding CME bubbles propagating in interplanetary space. In this presentation we will briefly introduce the fundamental properties of the catastrophe models of solar eruptions, display the expected observational consequences, and discuss what consequences can be directly deduced from the model calculations and what needs to be further investigated via improving our existing models on the basis of more rigorous calculations.
DE: 7513 Coronal mass ejections (2101)
DE: 7514 Energetic particles (2114)
DE: 7519 Flares
DE: 7526 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7835)
DE: 7531 Prominence eruptions
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005