The Effects of Gravity of an Loss-of-Equilibrium CME Initiation Model

Abstract

We include gravity in a loss of equilibrium model for the initiation of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). We examine equilibria for both normal and inverse polarity and neglect the effects of current sheets. Although equilibria exist for normal polarities, in the absence of current sheets, the equilibria are unstable to horizontal perturbations. For the inverse polarity configuration, we find that gravity generally has a negligible effect if the magnetic field is strong ($>$50 G) but that it can have a significant effect if the magnetic field is weak. Specifically, if the characteristic magnetic field is less than about 6 G, no eruption occurs if the CME mass is on the order of 2 $\times 10^{16}$ gm.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html