A Microfilament-Eruption Mechanism for Solar Spicules

Abstract

Recent investigations indicate that solar coronal jets result from eruptions of small-scale chromospheric filaments, called minifilaments; that is, the jets are produced by scaled-down versions of typical-sized filament eruptions. We consider whether solar spicules might in turn be scaled-down versions of coronal jets, being driven by eruptions of "microfilaments." Assuming a microfilament's size is about a spicule's width ($\sim$300~km), the estimated occurrence number plotted against the estimated size of erupting filaments, minifilaments, and microfilaments approximately follows a power-law distribution (based on counts of CMEs, coronal jets, and spicules), suggesting that many or most spicules could result from microfilament eruptions. Observed spicule-base Ca II brightenings plausibly result from such microfilament eruptions. By analogy with coronal jets, microfilament eruptions might produce spicules with many of their observed characteristics, including smooth rise profiles, twisting motions, and EUV counterparts. The postulated microfilament eruptions are presumably eruptions of twisted-core micro magnetic bipoles that are $\sim$1$".0$ wide. These explosive bipoles might be built and destabilized by merging and cancelation of magnetic-flux elements of $\sim$few$\times 100$~G and of size <~$0".5$---$1".0$. If however spicules are relatively more numerous than indicated by our extrapolated distribution, then only a fraction of spicules might result from this proposed mechanism.

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Cited by in corpus (14)

• On the generation of solar spicules and Alfvénic waves
• Generation of Solar Spicules and Subsequent Atmospheric Heating
• Observation and Modeling of Solar Jets
• Two-fluid numerical simulations of solar spicules
• Possible Production of Solar Spicules by Microfilament Eruptions
• Chromospheric and coronal heating and jet acceleration due to reconnection driven by flux cancellation. I. At a three-dimensional current sheet
• Hi-C 2.1 Observations of Small-Scale Miniature-Filament-Eruption-Like Cool Ejections in Active Region Plage
• Power-law Distribution of Solar-Cycle Modulated Coronal Jets
• Contribution of spicules to solar coronal emission
• Inconspicuous Solar Polar Coronal X-ray Jets as the Source of Conspicuous Hinode/EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) Doppler Outflows
• Numerical simulation of solar photospheric jet-like phenomena caused by magnetic reconnection
• Prospective Implications of EUV Coronal Plumes for Magnetic-network Genesis of Coronal Heating, Coronal-hole Solar Wind, and Solar-wind Magnetic-field Switchbacks
• High-resolution He I 10830 Å narrowband imaging for precursors of chromospheric jets and their quasi-periodic properties
• Relation of Microstreams in the Polar Solar Wind to Switchbacks and Coronal X-ray Jets