Theory of coronal mass ejections

Abstract

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are extremely important phenomena, both for understanding the evolution of the global corona and for understanding and predicting space weather. Despite this importance, the physical explanation of CMEs remains largely confused. A variety of theoretical models have been proposed, and we here attempt to organize them according to a classification scheme that identifies and differentiates their essential physical attributes. We propose five distinct classes of models, which we present with the aid of simple analogues involving springs, ropes, and weights. We also indicate how some of the models observations.