From Pseudostreamer Jets to CMEs: Observations of the Breakout Continuum

Abstract

The magnetic breakout model, in which reconnection in the corona leads to destabilization of a filament channel, explains numerous features of eruptive solar events, from small-scale jets to global-scale coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The underlying multipolar topology, pre-eruption activities, and sequence of magnetic reconnection onsets (first breakout, then flare) of many observed fast CMEs/eruptive flares are fully consistent with the model. Recently, we have demonstrated that most observed coronal-hole jets in fan/spine topologies also are induced by breakout reconnection at the null point above a filament channel (with or without a filament). For these two types of eruptions occurring in similar topologies, the key question is, why do some events generate jets while others form CMEs? We focused on the initiation of eruptions in large bright points/small active regions that were located in coronal holes and clearly exhibited null-point (fan/spine) topologies: such configurations are referred to as pseudostreamers. We analyzed and compared SDO/AIA, SOHO/LASCO, and RHESSI observations of three events. Our analysis of the events revealed two new observable signatures of breakout reconnection prior to the explosive jet/CME outflows and flare onset: coronal dimming and the opening-up of field lines above the breakout current sheet. Most key properties were similar among the selected erupting structures, thereby eliminating region size, photospheric field strength, magnetic configuration, and pre-eruptive evolution as discriminating factors between jets and CMEs. We consider the factors that contribute to the different types of dynamic behavior, and conclude that the main determining factor is the ratio of the magnetic free energy associated with the filament channel compared to the energy associated with the overlying flux inside and outside the pseudostreamer dome.

ApJ (in press), 24 pages, 15 figures

References in corpus (15)

• Small-scale filament eruptions as the driver of solar coronal hole X-ray jets
• STEREO/SECCHI Stereoscopic Observations Constraining the Initiation of Polar Coronal Jets
• A Breakout Model for Solar Coronal Jets with Filaments
• Sympathetic Magnetic Breakout Coronal Mass Ejections from Pseudostreamers
• Observations and Implications of Large-Amplitude Longitudinal Oscillations in a Solar Filament
• 3D Radio and X-Ray Modeling and Data Analysis Software: Revealing Flare Complexity
• Magnetic Untwisting in Solar Jets that Go into the Outer Corona in Polar Coronal Holes
• Microwave Spectral Imaging of an Erupting Magnetic Flux Rope: Implications for the Standard Solar Flare Model in Three Dimensions
• Multiwavelength Study of Equatorial Coronal-Hole Jets
• Observations of Solar Coronal Rain in Null Point Topologies
• Quasi-Periodic Radio Bursts Associated with Fast-mode Waves near a Magnetic Null Point
• Escape of Flare-accelerated Particles in Solar Eruptive Events
• Observations and 3D MHD Modeling of a Confined Helical Jet Launched by a Filament Eruption
• Heating and Eruption of a Solar Circular Ribbon Flare
• Observation of a Large-scale Quasi-circular Secondary Ribbon associated with Successive Flares and a Halo CME

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Quasiperiodic Energy Release and Jets at the Base of Solar Coronal Plumes
• Defining the Middle Corona
• A Model for the Coupled Eruption of a Pseudostreamer and Helmet Streamer
• Plasmoids, Flows, and Jets During Magnetic Reconnection in a Failed Solar Eruption
• New Evidence on the Origin of Solar Wind Microstreams/Switchbacks
• An Observational Study of a "Rosetta-Stone" Solar Eruption
• Statistical analysis of circular-ribbon flares
• Direct Imaging of Magnetohydrodynamic Wave Mode Conversion Near a 3D Null Point on the Sun
• The S-Web Origin of Composition Enhancement in the Slow-to-Moderate Speed Solar Wind
• Revisiting the formation mechanism for coronal rain from previous studies
• Synthetic Remote-sensing and In-situ Observations of Fine-scale Structure in a Pseudostreamer Coronal Mass Ejection through the Solar Corona
• An EUV jet driven by a series of transition region micro-jets
• Observations of a New Form of Partial Filament Eruption
• Thermal Non-equilibrium Cycles in a Non-eruptive Pseudo-Streamer