Abstract from Solar Physics Division 2003 Conference: Laurel, Maryland, USA

Building an On-line Catalog of Correlated Solar Prominence and Sigmoid Images

I.V. Merriot (Abaetern Academy, Bozeman, MT), A Pevtsov (NSO), P. Martens (Montana State U.) Predicting solar weather is a complex endeavor. The correlation between X-ray sigmoids and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) has been established but the role of the prominence in association with the sigmoid and CME is not yet clear. This study catalogs the correlation between prominence behavior and sigmoids --before and after-- a CME takes place.

CME, sigmoid and filament occurrences were correlated using the Yashiro online catalog (SOHO), the SXT sigmoid catalog (Yohkoh) and archived H-alpha film from the flare patrol telscope (NSO/SP). When correlations were found, the H-alpha full disk images were digitized to embrace time periods of 2-3 hours before and after the CME event where changes in filament were notable. The culmination of this study will be a web-based catalog of data in text and images showing filament dynamics when sigmoids leading to CMEs are present.

This study is funded, in part, by the Murdock Foundation.