Common characteristics of CMEs and BLOBs: a new view of their possible origin

An analysis of the LASCO/SOHO data has shown that blobs are similar, in their basic characteristics, to CMEs, having a relatively small size and relatively low velocities. The formation of blobs and CMEs is usually accompanied by the process where a separate ray (or rays) of the streamer belt becomes occupied by additional anti-sunward traveling plasma of increased density. Generally the size of a CME in the plane of the streamer belt can exceed the CME size in the direction normal to the belt. Conceivably the formation mechanism of CMEs and their energetics might be associated with the energy of additional anti-sunward traveling plasma. This should be taken into account when constructing theoretical models of CMEs.