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J. Krall, J. Chen (NRL), R. Santoro (NRL-NRC postdoc)
The dynamics of magnetic flux ropes near the sun and in interplanetary space are studied using a modified version of the flux rope model of Chen and Garren [1]. In this model, a coronal mass ejection (CME) corresponds to a flux rope with foot points that remain anchored in the photosphere. The model flux rope eruption can be driven by a rapid increase in poloidal flux (flux injection), a gradual increase in poloidal flux (photospheric foot-point twisting), an unstable release of stored magnetic energy (storage-release), or a rapid increase in the volume of hot plasma within the flux rope(mass injection). Model results are compared with LASCO data (from the CME of 13 April 1997) and with interplanetary magnetic cloud data over the range 0.5 to 4.0 AU. Of these mechanisms, only flux injection is found to reproduce the key features of the data both near the sun and in the interplanetary medium.
\noindent [1] Chen, J., and Garren, D. A. 1993, Goephys.\ Res.\ Lett., 20, 2319
\noindent *Work supported by ONR.
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