The Magnetic Origins of Solar Eruptions
Spiro Antiochos
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
The most spectacular and most energetic manifestations of solar activity are the giant disruptions of the Sun's magnetic field that give rise to coronal mass ejections (CME) and prominence/filament eruptions. These phenomena are also one of the most interesting of solar phenomena from the viewpoint of basic MHD physics and present a great challenge to MHD theory. In this talk, I will discuss some of the recent observations of CMEs and prominence eruptions taken by the SOHO and TRACE missions, and then describe a new theoretical model, "magnetic breakout" that can explain the observed features of these events. The key idea behind the model is that the interaction of neighboring flux systems via magnetic reconnection leads to the suden release of magnetic stress stored in strong fields lying near the bottom of the solar atmosphere.