Coronal Mass Ejections: Models and Their Observational Basis

Chen, P. F., Coronal Mass Ejections: Models and Their Observational Basis, Living Reviews in Solar Physics, 8, 1 (2011) (ADS)

The cartoon

(click on the image for a larger version)

Is this cartoon describing a flare, a CME, or a jet? The Archivist would regard these as a brightening, a perpendicular plasma flow, or a parallel flow. Observationally this distinction is based on the image morphology, which is a bit fuzzy given that we cannot readily distinguish a streamer ray (which underlies the traditional "blow-out" CME with its three parts), and a pseudo-streamer (which is unipolar). Of course at the level of the real physics, all of these phenomena, including both kinds of flows, can be happening more or less simultaneously. Here though the artist has called our attention to the fact that a jet ("narrow CME" being a poor name for the process) may not involve much perpendicular plasma flow. See the revolutionary mini-filament idea for further confusion here.

Date: 2011 April 16

Update: 2019 November 20