Direct Evidence of an Eruptive, Filament-Hosting Magnetic Flux Rope Leading to a Fast Solar Coronal Mass Ejection

Abstract

Magnetic flux ropes (MFRs) are believed to be at the heart of solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs). A well-known example is the prominence cavity in the low corona that sometimes makes up a three-part white-light (WL) CME upon its eruption. Such a system, which is usually observed in quiet-Sun regions, has long been suggested to be the manifestation of an MFR with relatively cool filament material collecting near its bottom. However, observational evidence of eruptive, filament-hosting MFR systems has been elusive for those originating in active regions. By utilizing multi-passband extreme-ultra-violet (EUV) observations from SDO/AIA, we present direct evidence of an eruptive MFR in the low corona that exhibits a hot envelope and a cooler core; the latter is likely the upper part of a filament that undergoes a partial eruption, which is later observed in the upper corona as the coiled kernel of a fast, WL CME. This MFR-like structure exists more than one hour prior to its eruption, and displays successive stages of dynamical evolution, in which both ideal and non-ideal physical processes may be involved. The timing of the MFR kinematics is found to be well correlated with the energy release of the associated long-duration C1.9 flare. We suggest that the long-duration flare is the result of prolonged energy release associated with the vertical current sheet induced by the erupting MFR.

14 pages, 9 figures, to be published in The Astrophysical Journal; accompanying animations can be found at https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~bchen/publications/Chen+2014_MFR/

References in corpus (3)

• Slow Rise and Partial Eruption of a Double-Decker Filament. I Observations and Interpretation
• On the Relationship Between a Hot-channel-like Solar Magnetic Flux Rope and its embedded Prominence
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• Radio Spectroscopic Imaging of a Solar Flare Termination Shock: Split-Band Feature as Evidence for Shock Compression
• Heating of an erupting prominence associated with a solar coronal mass ejection on 2012 January 27
• Thermodynamics of supra-arcade downflows in solar flares
• Possible Detection of Subsecond-period Propagating Magnetohydrodynamics Waves in Post-reconnection Magnetic Loops during a Two-ribbon Solar Flare
• On Modeling the Kelvin--Helmholtz Instability in Solar Atmosphere
• Dynamic Spectral Imaging of Decimetric Fiber Bursts in an Eruptive Solar Flare