2013/09/30 by Piyali Chatterjee, Yuhong Fan · 48 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Corona (planetary geology) #Coronal mass ejection #Flux (metallurgy) #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Magnetic flux #Magnetohydrodynamic drive #Rope #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Solar flare #Solar prominence #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/2041-8205/778/1/l8
published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters 778(1), L8 (IOP Publishing) · 4 figures, Expanded acronyms in the title in v3 to match that of the ApJ Letter version, Replaced Fig. 2 after correcting y-axes by a factor of 4π
openalex publication_date 2013/10/30 · arxiv created 2014/10/07 · arxiv updated 2014/10/08 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report the first results of a magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the development of a homologous sequence of three coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and demonstrate their so-called cannibalistic behavior. These CMEs originate from the repeated formations and partial eruptions of kink unstable flux ropes as a result of continued emergence of a twisted flux rope across the lower boundary into a pre-existing coronal potential arcade field. The simulation shows that a CME erupting into the open magnetic field created by a preceding CME has a higher speed. The second of the three successive CMEs is cannibalistic, catching up and merging with the first into a single fast CME before exiting the domain. All the CMEs including the leading merged CME, attained speeds of about 1000 km s −1 as they exit the domain. The reformation of a twisted flux rope after each CME eruption during the sustained flux emergence can naturally explain the X-ray observations of repeated reformations of sigmoids and "sigmoid-under-cusp" configurations at a low-coronal source of homologous CMEs.