Open AccessSolar flares and coronal mass ejections are aspects of same event
Author(s) -
Showstack Randy
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2003eo260003
Subject(s) - coronal mass ejection , spacecraft , physics , solar flare , space weather , observatory , event (particle physics) , solar physics , astronomy , astrophysics , solar wind , plasma , quantum mechanics
Solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the Sun are intertwined aspects of the same event, rather than two separate events, it was announced at an 18 June news briefing. The briefing was held as part of a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Physics Division. The finding resolves “a chicken‐and‐egg type of problem as to which came first,” according to Peter Gallagher, solar physicist with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He said that the problem had been debated for several decades. Gallagher is research scientist for two of the three spacecraft involved with the findings: NASA's Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), and NASA's Transition Region and Coronal Explorer, (TRACE). The third spacecraft is the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft (SOHO), which is a cooperative effort of NASA and the European Space Agency.