Large-scale source regions of earth-directed coronal mass ejections

Abstract

Based on SOHO/MDI, EIT, Yohkoh/SXT, Hα, and other relevant observations, we analyzed all the earth-directed halo coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the interval from Mar. 1997 to Dec. 2003. A total of 288 earth-directed CMEs were studied and their associated surface activity events identified. Unlike the previous studies that often attributed a surface activity event or a given active region to a CME source region, this statistical analysis puts emphasis on the large-scale magnetic structures of CMEs, in which the CME-associated surface activity takes place. All the CMEs are found to be associated with large-scale source structures. The identified large-scale structures can be grouped into four different categories: extended bipolar regions (EBRs), transequatorial magnetic loops, transequatorial filaments and their associated magnetic structures, and long filaments along the boundaries of EBRs. The relative percentages of their associated CMEs are 36%, 40%, 13%, and 11%, respectively. The analysis indicates that CMEs are intrinsically associated with source magnetic structures on a large spatial scale.