THE GEOMETRY CONNECTIVITY AND TOPOLOGY OF THE LARGE-SCALE CORONAL MAGNETIC FIELD PLAY A KEY ROLE IN DETERMINING WHETHER A SOLAR RECONNECTION EVENT WILL RESULT IN AN ERUPTION EITHER BY INFLUENCING THE LOCATION WHERE MAGNETIC RECONNECTION RELEASES ENERGY FOR AN EVENT OR BY DETERMINING THE PATHWAYS AND ACCESS TO OPEN FIELD THAT ALLOW AN ERUPTION TO PROCEED. THE RESEARCH PROPOSED HERE INVOLVES STUDYING A LARGE SAMPLE OF FLARING ACTIVE REGIONS TO DETERMINE WHICH TOPOLOGICAL FEATURES ARE MOST CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH BOTH ERUPTIVE AND NON-ERUPTIVE EVENTS. KNOWLEDGE OF TOPOLOGICAL FEATURES THAT AFFECT THE ERUPTIVITY OF ACTIVE REGIONS WILL PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO THEIR CAUSE EITHER IN THE CONTEXT OF THE TYPE OF RECONNECTION GENERATING THE EVENT (E.G. WHETHER CORONAL NULL POINTS ARE MOST STRONGLY ASSOCIATED WITH ERUPTIONS AS IN THE BREAKOUT MODEL) OR IN THE CONTEXT OF UNDERSTANDING WHY SOME FLARES LEAD TO ERUPTIONS BUT OTHERS DON'T (E.G. WHETHER ACCESS TO OPEN MAGNETIC FLUX FACILITATES OR ENHANCES THE CHANCES OF AN ERUPTION). BY DETERMINING HOW OFTEN BALD PATCHES EXIST THE QUESTION OF WHETHER A FLUX ROPE MUST BE PRESENT PRIOR TO AN ERUPTION OR IF IT CAN FORM DURING THE ERUPTION WILL BE ADDRESSED. ESTIMATING THE RATE AT WHICH ERUPTIONS OCCUR WITH AND WITHOUT PARTICULAR TOPOLOGICAL FEATURES WILL YIELD PROBABILISTIC FORECASTS OF WHETHER THE CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR AN ERUPTION SHOULD A FLARE OCCUR. OF PARTICULAR INTEREST WOULD BE A TOPOLOGICAL FEATURE ASSOCIATED WITH VERY LOW ERUPTION RATES AS THIS CAN BE USED TO IMPROVE THE ABILITY TO ISSUE ALL-CLEAR FORECASTS.