With collaborators in the US and the UK, I am carrying out a
multi-wavelength target of opportunity (TOO) observing program to
study the outbursts in classical symbiotic systems. It is not known
whether these outbursts are primarily due to thermonuclear events
(shell flashes), expansion of the white dwarf photosphere as a result
of a change in accretion rate onto a layer of burning material on the
surface of the white dwarf, an accretion instability, or some
combination of all of these mechanisms. I am particularly interested
in determining what triggers an outburst. and the relationship between
these outbursts and the production of collimated jets of material.
Radio through X-ray observations throughout the course of several
outbursts should provide constraints on the various outburst models.
