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Numerical simulation of a catastrophe model for coronal mass ejectionsVan Tend and Kuperus (1978) proposed a simple catastrophe model for magnetically driving coronal mass ejections, prominence eruptions, and two-ribbon flares. Their model, which is based on simple circuit concepts, suggests that a stable configuration containing a current filament will lose equilibrium when the filament current exceeds a critical value. Here, a two-dimensional numerical simulation is used to test how the Van Tend-Kuperus model works in an ideal MHD fluid. The simulation exhibits the expected loss of mechanical equilibrium near the predicted critical value, but the current filament moves only a short distance upward before coming to rest at a new equilibrium. However, this new equilibrium contains a current sheet which is resistively unstable to magnetic reconnection, and if magnetic reconnection occurs rapidly, the filament can continue to move upward at Alfvenic speeds.
Document ID
19900057448
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Forbes, T. G.
(New Hampshire, University Durham, United States)
Date Acquired
August 14, 2013
Publication Date
August 1, 1990
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research
Volume: 95
ISSN: 0148-0227
Subject Category
Solar Physics
Accession Number
90A44503
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAGW-76
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF ATM-89-16303
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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