Flux Rope Interaction with the Ambient Corona: from Jets to CMEs

Decades of satellite observations have shown the importance of the ambient coronal magnetic field on shaping and guiding eruptions. On the small scale, X-ray and EUV observations show that coronal jets are both guided by the ambient magnetic field, but also often arise from the interaction of an erupting small-scale filament with the magnetic field above it. Similarly, the confinement and failure of some eruptions is thought to be a direct result of the interaction of the rising flux rope with the ambient coronal field, and on the largest scales, in eruptive flares the interaction with the ambient coronal magnetic field plays a crucial role in guiding the path of the CME. 

Our community understanding is at a point where we are able to draw clear parallels between these different events, with some events often essentially being interpreted as large-scale or small-scale versions of others. The time is right for a special topic to bring together work on these different aspects of eruption interaction with the ambient coronal magnetic field, with the aim of highlighting the commonalities of flux rope interaction across different events and scales in the solar corona and unifying the modelling and observational community efforts.

Much advancement has been made in recent years to better quantify the nature of flux rope/background interaction, yet many vital questions remain, for instance:

• What role does the low coronal magnetic topology play in the deflection or confinement of CMEs?

• How well can a CME path be predicted based on global magnetic extrapolations? What are their limita-tions?

• Is the decay index all that is required to predict eruption or confin ement? Does it work well in more complex magnetic fields with multiple domains?

• Does a nearby coronal hole make an eruption more likely?

• How is the connectivity of a CME affected by its interaction with the coronal magnetic field?

• Why do multiple confined events sometimes lead to an eruptive CME?

• Is there a scale when coronal jet-like eruptions transition to CME-like eruptions? And what defines it?

We invite contributions of papers involving the theory, numerical simulation or observations of solar eruptions from small-scale coronal jets up to and including studies of CME propagation through to the heliosphere. The submitted papers could cover one or more aspects of current topics in jets, eruptive flares or CMEs in addition to one or more of the questions raised above. We particularly encourage submissions where different event types are contrasted.