A partial filament eruption in three steps induced by external magnetic reconnection

Abstract

We present an investigation of partial filament eruption on 2012 June 17 in the active region NOAA 11504. For the first time, we observed the vertical splitting process during the partial eruption with high resolution narrow band images at 10830 . The active filament was rooted in a small sunspot of the active region. Particularly, it underwent the partial eruption in three steps, i.e. the precursor, the first eruption, and the second eruption, while the later two were associated with a C1.0 flare and a C3.9 flare, respectively. During the precursor, slow magnetic reconnection took place between the filament and the adjoining loops that also rooted in the sunspot. The continuous reconnection not only caused the filament to split into three groups of threads vertically but also formed a new filament, which was growing and accompanied brightening took place around the site. Subsequently, the growing filament erupted together with one group splitted threads, resulted in the first eruption. At the beginning of the first eruption, a subsequent magnetic reconnection occurred between the erupting splitted threads and another ambient magnetic loop. After about three minutes, the second eruption occurred as a result of the eruption of two larger unstable filaments induced by the magnetic reconnection. The high-resolution observation provides a direct evidence that magnetic reconnection between filament and its ambient magnetic fields could induce the vertical splitting of the filament, resulting in partial eruption.

15 pages,10 figures

References in corpus (20)

• Torus instability
• Ideal kink instability of a magnetic loop equilibrium
• Preprocessing of vector magnetograph data for a non-linear force-free magnetic field reconstruction
• MPI-AMRVAC for Solar and Astrophysics
• Slow Rise and Partial Eruption of a Double-Decker Filament. I Observations and Interpretation
• SOHO/SUMER Observations of Prominence Oscillation Before Eruption
• Slow Rise and Partial Eruption of a Double-Decker Filament. II. Modeling by a Double Flux Rope Equilibrium
• Multiwavelength observations of a partially eruptive filament on 2011 September 8
• A Time Series of Filament Eruptions Observed by Three Eyes from Space: From Failed to Successful Eruptions
• Partially-erupting prominences: a comparison between observations and model-predicted observables
• Partial eruption of a filament with twisting nonuniform fields
• $\delta$-Sunspot Formation in Simulation of Active-Region-Scale Flux Emergence
• Bridging EUV and white-light observations to inspect the initiation phase of a "two-stage" solar eruptive event
• A Flare Observed in Coronal, Transition Region and Helium I 10830 Å Emissions
• Development of a Confined Circular-cum-parallel Ribbon Flare and Associated Pre-flare Activity
• Interaction of two filaments in a long filament channel associated with twin coronal mass ejections
• Pre-eruption processes: heating, particle acceleration and the formation of a hot channel before the 2012 October 20 M9.0 limb flare
• Pre-eruption Splitting of the Double-Decker Structure in a Solar Filament
• The Formation and Eruption of A Sigmoidal Filament Driven by Rotating Network Magnetic Fields
• The configuration and failed eruption of a complex magnetic flux rope above a δ sunspot region