Tornado-Like Evolution of A Kink-Unstable Solar Prominence

Abstract

We report on the tornado-like evolution of a quiescent prominence on 2014 November 1. The eastern section of the prominence first rose slowly transforming into an arch-shaped structure as high as ~150 Mm above the limb; the arch then writhed moderately in a left-handed sense, while the originally dark prominence material became in emission in the Fe IX 171~Å passband, and a braided structure appeared at the eastern edge of the warped arch. The unraveling of the braided structure was associated with a transient brightening in EUV and apparently contributed to the formation of a curtain-like structure (CLS). The CLS consisted of myriads of thread-like loops rotating counterclockwise about the vertical if viewed from above. Heated prominence material was observed to slide along these loops and land outside the filament channel. The tornado was eventually disintegrated and the remaining material flew along a left-handed helical path of approximately a full turn, as corroborated through stereoscopic reconstruction, into the cavity of the stable, western section of the prominence. We suggest that the tornado-like evolution of the prominence was governed by the helical kink instability, and that the CLS formed through magnetic reconnections between the prominence field and the overlying coronal field.

arXiv commentaccepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (16)

• Torus instability
• Confined and ejective eruptions of kink-unstable flux ropes
• Physics of Solar Prominences: I - Spectral Diagnostics and Non-LTE Modelling
• Structure, Stability, and Evolution of Magnetic Flux Ropes from the Perspective of Magnetic Twist
• Slow Rise and Partial Eruption of a Double-Decker Filament. I Observations and Interpretation
• Prominence and Filament Eruptions Observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory: Statistical Properties, Kinematics, and Online Catalog
• A solar tornado observed by AIA/SDO: Rotational flow and evolution of magnetic helicity in a prominence and cavity
• A solar tornado triggered by flares?
• Apparent Solar Tornado - Like Prominences
• Coronal magnetic reconnection driven by CME expansion -- the 2011 June 7 event
• Helical Kink Instability in a Confined Solar Eruption
• Energy release from impacting prominence material following the 2011 June 7 eruption
• Investigating the Dynamics and Density Evolution of Returning Plasma Blobs from the 2011 June 7 Eruption
• Coronal cavities: observations and implications for the magnetic environment of prominences
• Diagnosing the Prominence-Cavity Connection
• Slow Magneto-acoustic Waves Observed above Quiet-Sun Region in a Dark Cavity

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Magnetic Flux Ropes in the Solar Corona: Structure and Evolution toward Eruption
• Eruption of a multi-flux-rope system in solar active region 12673 leading to the two largest flares in Solar Cycle 24
• Some interesting topics provoked by the solar filament research in the past decade
• Automated Swirl Detection Algorithm (ASDA) and Its Application to Simulation and Observational Data
• Study of Three-Dimensional Magnetic Structure and the Successive Eruptive Nature of Active Region 12371
• Disintegration of an Eruptive Filament via Interactions with Quasi-Separatrix Layers
• Prominence eruption initiated by helical kink-instability of an embedded flux rope
• Untwisting Jets Related to Magnetic Flux Cancellation
• Spectral Characteristics of a Rotating Solar Prominence in Multiple Wavelengths
• On the linear structure of the interlaced Alfvén vortices in the tail of Uranus at solstice