SOLAR ERUPTIONS SUCH AS CMES AND CORONAL JETS STEM FROM CURRENT-CARRYING (SHEARED/TWISTED) CORONAL MAGNETIC FIELDS OFTEN REFERRED TO AS FILAMENT CHANNELS (FCS). FCS ALWAYS RESIDE ABOVE POLARITY INVERSION LINES (PILS) OF THE PHOTOSPHERIC MAGNETIC FIELD AND STORE THE FREE MAGNETIC ENERGY REQUIRED TO POWER ERUPTIONS. DESPITE THEIR IMPORTANCE ONLY A HANDFUL OF OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES OF FC FORMATION EXIST ALL OF WHICH WERE BASED ON OBSERVATIONS OF CHROMOSPHERIC FIBRILS. CONSEQUENTLY WHILE MANY MODELS OF FC FORMATION HAVE BEEN PROPOSED THE UNDERLYING MECHANISMS ARE NOT YET CLARIFIED. MOST FCS FORM AT EXTERNAL PILS I.E. AT THE PERIPHERY OF ARS AND WE WILL FOCUS ON SUCH CASES IN THIS PROPOSAL. RECENTLY WE HAVE DISCOVERED THE FORMATION OF CONJOINED FLUX ROPES (CFRS) AT EXTERNAL PILS IN MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC (MHD) FLUXEMERGENCE SIMULATIONS. CFRS CONSIST OF TWO FLUX ROPES OF OPPOSITE TWIST THAT CONNECT TO A COMMON SPIRAL NULL POINT. IN OUR SIMULATIONS THEY ARE PRODUCED BY RECONNECTION OF THE EMERGING FLUX WITH THE EXISTING CORONAL FIELD. THIS SUGGESTS AN ATTRACTIVE NEW MECHANISM FOR THE FORMATION OF FCS AT EXTERNAL PILS. OBSERVATIONALLY CFRS CAN BE DETECTED BY OPPOSITELY DIRECTED SHEAR FIELDS ALONG A PIL AND/OR OPPOSITE TWIST OF ASSOCIATED FIBRILS OR FILAMENTS. SUCH PATTERNS WERE SEEN PREVIOUSLY BUT HAVE NOT YET BEEN SHOWN TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH CFRS. WE PROPOSE A COMPREHENSIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY IN WHICH WE WILL SEARCH FOR AND CATALOG CFR-FCS INVESTIGATE THEIR FORMATION MECHANISM AND ASSESS THEIR ERUPTIVE BEHAVIOR. TO THIS END WE WILL PREDOMINANTLY EMPLOY DATA FROM NASA'S SDO MISSION. HMI VECTOR MAGNETOGRAMS WILL BE USED TO IDENTIFY LOCATIONS WHERE EXTERNAL PILS WITH OPPOSITELY DIRECTED SHEAR HAVE FORMED AND TO INFER THE PRECEDING EVOLUTION OF THE MAGNETIC FIELD. AIA OBSERVATIONS WILL BE USED TO DETECT THE PRESENCE OF FILAMENTS AT THESE LOCATIONS AND TO INFER THEIR HANDEDNESS AND ERUPTIVE BEHAVIOR. FOR SELECTED CASES WE WILL PRODUCE NONLINEAR FORCE-FREE FIELD (NLFFF) EXTRAPOLATIONS TO OBTAIN THE DETAILED MAGNETIC-FIELD CONFIGURATIONS AND TO ANALYZE THEIR STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES USING STATE-OF-THE-ART TOOLS. WE HAVE ACQUIRED DATA SETS OF EMERGING ARS AND CORONAL JETS WHICH WILL SERVE AS THE STARTING POINT OF OUR INVESTIGATION. ADDITIONAL CANDIDATE CASES WILL BE COLLECTED IN THE COURSE OF THE PROJECT. OUR OBSERVATIONAL STUDY WILL BE SUPPORTED BY MHD SIMULATIONS. WE WILL CONSIDER TWO SCENARIOS FOR THE FORMATION OF CFRS NAMELY THE EMERGENCE OF MAGNETIC FLUX INTO EXISTING MAGNETIC FIELDS AND THE INTERACTION OF ARS AS THEY APPROACH ONE ANOTHER. THE GOAL OF OUR SIMULATIONS WILL BE TO UNDERSTAND HOW WHEN AND UNDER WHICH CONDITIONS CFRS FORM IN THE CORONA AND ERUPT. WE WILL STUDY THE DEPENDENCE ON PARAMETERS SUCH AS THE FLUX CONTENT MAGNETIC ORIENTATION AND TWIST OF THE EMERGING OR APPROACHING FLUX SYSTEMS. OUR PROPOSED INVESTIGATION IS TIMELY AND INNOVATIVE AS IT WILL (I) USE FOR THE FIRST TIME VECTOR MAGNETIC FIELD DATA AND EUV OBSERVATIONS TO INVESTIGATE THE FORMATION OF FCS AND (II) CONSIDER A NEW MECHANISM FOR FC FORMATION SUGGESTED BY THE THEORY. IT IS ALSO HIGHLY RELEVANT TO THE NASA/SDO MISSION GOAL "WHAT MAGNETIC FIELD CONFIGURATIONS LEAD TO THE CMES FILAMENT ERUPTIONS AND FLARES THAT PRODUCE ENERGETIC PARTICLES AND RADIATION?" AND RELEVANT TO THE NASA/SDO MISSION GOAL "HOW IS ACTIVE REGION MAGNETIC FLUX SYNTHESIZED CONCENTRATED AND DISPERSED ACROSS THE SOLAR SURFACE?". IT IS ALSO PARTLY RELEVANT TO THE HELIOPHYSICS DECADAL SURVEY SCIENCE GOAL "DETERMINE THE ORIGINS OF THE SUN S ACTIVITY AND PREDICT THE VARIATIONS IN THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT".