Early evolution of coronal mass ejections

CREMADES, H.

Atenas

Congreso; 44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly 2022; 2022

Ever since the discovery of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), their importance for determining the status of Space Weather has been unquestionable. A vast number of space- and ground-based instrumentation has thus been deployed throughout the past five decades, not only aimed at studying CMEs themselves but also their sources and related phenomena. In spite of these many efforts, the first stages of CME evolution have remained fairly elusive, mainly because of limitations in observations at low coronal heights. In particular, images from space-borne coronagraphs along the Sun-Earth line suffered from a prevailing gap between 1.3 and 2.2 solar radii. Although radio-imaging, EUV, and ground-based coronagraph observations have proven to be valuable in filling the gap, these alternatives have many shortcomings. There- fore, the design and deployment of new instrumentation, together with development of new methods became mandatory to deepen knowledge on the early evolution of CMEs. The unique capabilities of Solar Orbiter are promising to provide new insights on CME initial evolution, while those of Parker Solar Probe have enabled for the first time in situ detection of CMEs at distances of less than 20 solar radii. Such data are crucial to understand mechanisms behind their formation and onset, kinematics including propagation direction, speed and acceleration, as well as relationships with solar source characteristics and related phenomena. In this talk we will review recent findings and address open questions on the early evolution of CMEs, which inspired upcoming instrumentation that would enable further progress in this respect.