Magnetohydrodynamic modeling for a formation process of coronal mass ejections: Interaction between an ejecting flux rope and an ambient field

Abstract

We performed a magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a formation process of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), focusing on the interaction (reconnection) between an ejecting flux rope and its ambient field. We examined three cases with different ambient fields: one had no ambient field, while the other two had dipole fields with opposite directions, parallel and anti-parallel to that of the flux rope surface. We found that while the flux rope disappears in the anti-parallel case, in the other cases the flux ropes can evolve to CMEs and show different amounts of flux rope rotation. The results imply that the interaction between an ejecting flux rope and its ambient field is an important process for determining CME formation and CME orientation, and also show that the amount and direction of the magnetic flux within the flux rope and the ambient field are key parameters for CME formation. The interaction (reconnection) plays a significant role in the rotation of the flux rope especially with a process similar to "tilting instability" in a spheromak-type experiment of laboratory plasma. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.