Investigating the Relationship between the Temperature of Flux Ropes and Relative Timing of CMEs and Flares

In solar eruption events, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and flares often occur, albeit not simultaneously. The relative timing between these two phenomena can vary seemingly at random. These events occur due to magnetic reconnection of solar magnetic fields in the corona, which are complicated processes not fully understood. Uncovering a connection between this relative timing and the local solar environment could spark further understanding into the complicated details of magnetic reconnection, which in turn could result in a fuller understanding of the corona and space weather as a whole. In this work, we investigate whether a correlation exists between this relative timing and the temperature of an event's flux rope, a bundle of magnetic field lines above the point of magnetic reconnection. We calculate this relative timing by comparing GOES light curves of flares and height-time plots of CME observations from the AIA instrument. We then use the results of the previous literature (Nindos et al., 2015) to obtain many solar events with and without hot flux ropes. Finally, we compare the relative timing of the events with and without hot flux ropes. After analyzing several events in this manner, we find that there are several events without a hot flux rope that seem to have a delay between its flare and CME, while at least one of the events with a hot flux rope has a smaller or no delay. These preliminary results provide support for the hypothesis that the flux ropes are comprised of, and heated along, the same magnetic field lines undergoing the early stages of the eruptive reconnection event.This work supported by the NSF-REU Solar Physics program at SAO, grant number AGS-1850750 and the NSF Solar Terrestrial Program, grant number AGS-1923365