Uncovering the Birth of a Coronal Mass Ejection from Two-Viewpoint SECCHI Observations

Abstract

We investigate the initiation and formation of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) via detailed two-viewpoint analysis of low corona observations of a relatively fast CME acquired by the SECCHI instruments aboard the STEREO mission. The event which occurred on January 2, 2008, was chosen because of several unique characteristics. It shows upward motions for at least four hours before the flare peak. Its speed and acceleration profiles exhibit a number of inflections which seem to have a direct counterpart in the GOES light curves. We detect and measure, in 3D, loops that collapse toward the erupting channel while the CME is increasing in size and accelerates. We suggest that these collapsing loops are our first evidence of magnetic evacuation behind the forming CME flux rope. We report the detection of a hot structure which becomes the core of the white light CME. We observe and measure unidirectional flows along the erupting filament channel which may be associated with the eruption process. Finally, we compare these observations to the predictions from the standard flare-CME model and find a very satisfactory agreement. We conclude that the standard flare-CME concept is a reliable representation of the initial stages of CMEs and that multi-viewpoint, high cadence EUV observations can be extremely useful in understanding the formation of CMEs.

18 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Solar Physics Topical Issue "Advances of European Solar Physics"

References in corpus (3)

• Observing Flux Rope Formation During the Impulsive Phase of a Solar Eruption
• Global Properties of Solar Flares
• On the Brightening Propagation of Post-Flare Loops Observed by TRACE

Cited by in corpus (11)

• The Driver of Coronal Mass Ejections in the Low Corona: A Flux Rope
• How Common are Hot Magnetic Flux Ropes in the Low Solar Corona? A Statistical Study of EUV Observations
• Recurrent CME-like eruptions in emerging flux regions. I. On the mechanism of eruptions
• The spectroscopic imprint of the pre-eruptive configuration resulting into two major coronal mass ejections
• Modeling the Early Evolution of a Slow Coronal Mass Ejection Imaged by the Parker Solar Probe
• The emergence of magnetic flux and its role on the onset of solar dynamic events
• An Observational Study of a "Rosetta-Stone" Solar Eruption
• Mass Loss Evolution in the EUV Low Corona from SDO/AIA Data
• High-resolution Observations of a Flux Rope with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph
• Eruptions and Flaring Activity in Emerging Quadrupolar Regions
• Recurrent CME-like Eruptions in Emerging Flux Regions. II. Scaling of Energy and Collision of Successive Eruptions