Coronal mass ejection recurrence studies indicating global activity and local suppression

Abstract

The distribution of time intervals between successive coronal mass ejection events observed from the SMM and Skylab coronagraphs has been analyzed. Histograms of such recurrence times show that mass ejections tend to cluster in periods of activity. Evidence is found for simultaneous activity on a global scale. A second result is that, statistically, limb regions within + or - 59 deg position angle of a mass ejection show a marked absence of subsequent observable ejections for approximately 10 h. Flares of importance greater than or equal to 1 show no such deficit; however, large disparitons brusques tend similarly to be suppressed, for 24 h. This result, together with the closer association of mass ejection with eruptive prominences rather than with flares and the realization that eruptive prominences are rarely if ever seen without an accompanying mass ejection, obviates suggestions that magnetohydrodynamic conditions in the outflow following the earlier mass ejection hide subsequent coronal events.