Low-coronal source of stealth CMEs

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are eruptions in the solar atmosphere, which expand and propagate into space. They are generally associated with eruptive phenomena in the lower corona such as solar flares, filament eruptions, EUV waves or jets, known as low-coronal signatures (LCS). Recent studies have observed CMEs without a LCS and these have been referred to as stealth CMEs. Through new image processing applied to EUV images we find clear evidence of LCS leading to stealth CMEs. In this work, the new processing methods are applied to some of the data identified to contain stealth CMEs in previous studies to investigate the possible existence of observable LCS. The LCS of stealth CMEs are fairly sizeable yet faint eruptions with structure consistent with a rising flux tube, possibly formed higher in the corona in regions of weaker magnetic field. We believe these flux tubes are formed mostly in polar regions due to the larger shear resulting from the more slowly rotating lower atmosphere below the more rapidly rotating corona. This would allow the formation of large flux tubes in weaker field regions, leading to low-energy and low-density flux tube eruptions