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J. Krall, J. Chen (Plasma Physics Division, Naval Research Lab.), R. A. Howard (E. O. Hulburt Center for Space Research, Naval Research Lab.), B. J. Thompson (Goddard Space Flight Center)
A recent program of direct comparison of model CME results and CME observations [1-4] has produced a coherent view of the geometry and the dynamics of a specific class of CME's, which we refer to as ``flux-rope CME's.'' We further support this view by presenting LASCO/EIT measurements and model results for 11 flux-rope CME events. Each CME is compared to the theoretical results of a flux rope model [4,5] under the assumption that the driving mechanism is flux injection. In all cases the source region for the CME is determined so as to properly account for projection effects in the model/data comparisons. This talk will summarize the basic physical understanding resulting from the recent work. In particular, we discuss observable signatures produced by the model and compare them with the EIT and LASCO data. We also discuss photospheric signatures of these events in terms of motion (a few meters per second) and changes in the tangential magnetic field (about ten percent for tens of minutes). These are very small but may be accessible by future observations. Taken as a whole, the observational and model results provide a consistent view of the three-dimensional structure of this class of CME's.
[1] Chen et al., ApJ Lett., 490, L191, 1997.
[2] Wood et al, ApJ, 512, 484, 1999.
[3] Chen et al., to appear in ApJ, 2000.
[4] Krall et al., to appear in ApJ, 2000.
[5] Chen, J., JGR, 101, 27499, 1996.
*Work supported by ONR.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: krall@ppdu.nrl.navy.mil