SHINE: How New Active Regions Trigger Erupting Filaments and Associated Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs)

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The Principal Investigator (PI) plans to investigate how erupting solar filaments and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are triggered. The research will focus on why and how quiescent filaments frequently erupt when a new solar active region (AR) occurs within a broad area up to 35 heliographic degrees from middle of the quiescent filament. This relationship was first noted by Bruzek in 1952, and past statistical studies have verified its validity. The PI's team will examine new spacecraft data for evidence of interactions among solar coronal magnetic fields that could explain the Bruzek relationship. Specifically, the PI's team will use wavelet processed images from the Solar Heliospheric Observatory Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SOHO EIT) instrument to investigate how an AR can serve as a catalyst for a quiescent filament to erupt, even when such a filament is relatively distant from the newly forming AR. The PI will analyze a sample of at least 50 specific events while focusing on observed evidence of magnetic interactions. The PI expects this research to stimulate the development of new approaches to modeling erupting solar filaments and CMEs, which will not only be very useful for the solar physics research community, but also provide practical benefits to society. Such results will improve forecasts of erupting filaments and CMEs, which are important for space weather operations. One undergraduate student will assist in the planned data analysis during the summer months in each year of the project.This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).