Authors: KD Leka (NWRA), Karin Dissauer (U. Graz, NWRA), Graham Barnes (NWRA)

Solar flares are often “eruptive”, sending mass into the corona and often into space as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). We examine a few energetic events using chromospheric imaging spectroscopy from the Mees CCD Imaging Spectrograph (MCIS) and coronal imaging from the Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE) and the EUV Imaging Telescope (EIT) to inquire about the mass acceleration process, with magnetic field analysis using the Imaging Vector Magnetograph (IVM) and Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) for context. The events cover a range of GOES classes (X-class down to “nothing above background”), with (and without) the NOAA-assigned “ERU” flag, and with (and without) an identified associated CME detected using the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO). We follow chromospheric ejecta using a multi-cloud model and relate it to both apparent plasma motions in the corona and the coronal dimming characteristics in order to construct the story of the plasma trajectory. We find that sometimes, events do not follow “expected” behavior: the connection between flare dynamics, chromosphere and coronal kinematics may require examination of what it means to have an “eruptive flare” on the Sun.

This work was funded by NASA/HSR 80NSSC23K0098 with additional support from AFOSR grant FA9550-23-1-0681.