Click on the image above for a .ps version.
The occurrence of a solar flare (and/or a CME) requires a restructuring of the magnetic field in the corona, in such a way as to diminish the stored energy by the appropriate amount. While we don't know how this happens in detail, generally one can conclude that this would correspond to a global reduction in the volume of the field. The suggestion of this cartoon is that such a collapse could launch a seismic wave into the solar interior via the Lorentz force. There are other feasible models for this very interesting aspect of flare/CME development so this is just an idea.
The title "McClymont Jerk" pays tribute to Sandy McClymont, who did the first assessment of this idea in a 1993 paper by Anwar et al.
January 20, 2009