LECTURER:

Bojan Vrsnak
Hvar Observatory, Faculty of Geodesy, Zagreb, Croatia

TITLE:

Initiation and Propagation of Coronal Mass Ejections

ABSTRACT:

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are huge solar eruptions, launching
~10^13 kg of coronal plasma into interplanetary space at velocities in
the order of 1000 km/s. Basic observational characteristics of the
acceleration phase of CMEs will be presented, emphasizing those
aspects which are most relevant for testing physical concepts used to
explain their launch and propagation. The physical background of the
processes leading to eruption will be explained. Finally, various
eruption scenarios and signatures predicted by the related models are
confronted with observations.