Solar coronal mass ejections and flares

Harrison, R. A., Solar coronal mass ejections and flares, A&A, 162, 283-291 (1986) (ADS)

The cartoon

(click on the image for a larger version)

One of the most influential cartoons from the late 20th century, when the solar community suffered considerable stress from the perceived competition between what was meant by "solar flare" vis-a-vis by "coronal mass ejection". One school of thought held that there was no close relationship, and this cartoon helped that along with the graphical suggestions that CMEs don't correlate with flares either in space or in time.

As the decades rolled by, this kind of description has become much less important, since most of the powerful CMEs do have close relationships with major flares. But not all of them, since "Hyder events" are Archived here, and since polar-crown filament eruptions might stealthily play a role. In this case the Cartoonist was probably overly influenced by the sparse data of the era.

Date: 2025 June 20