• Sunspot shearing and sudden retraction motion associated with the 2013 August 17 M3.3 Flare

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: In this Letter, we give a detailed analysis to the M3.3 class flare that occurred on August 17, 2013 (SOL2013-08-17T18:16). It presents a clear picture of mutual magnetic interaction initially from the photosphere to the corona via the abrupt rapid shearing motion of a small sunspot before the flare, and then suddenly from the corona back to the photosphere via the sudden retraction motion of the same sunspot during the flare impulsive phase. About 10 hours before the flare, a small sunspot in the active region NOAA 11818 started to move northeast along a magnetic polarity inversion line (PIL), creating a shearing motion that changed the quasi-static state of the active region. A filament right above the PIL was activated following the movement of the sunspot and then got partially erupted. The eruption eventually led to the M3.3 flare. The sunspot was then suddenly pulled back to the opposite direction upon the flare onset. During the backward motion, the Lorentz force underwent a simultaneous impulsive change both in magnitude and direction. Its directional change is found to be conformable with the retraction motion. The observation provides direct evidence for the role of the shearing motion of the sunspot in powering and triggering the flare. It especially confirms that the abrupt motion of a sunspot during a solar flare is the result of a back reaction caused by the reconfiguration of the coronal magnetic field.

  • Multiwavelength observations of a partial filament eruption on 13 June 2011

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: In this paper, we report the multiwavelength observations of the partial filament eruption associated with a C1.2 class flare in NOAA active region 11236 on 13 June 2011. The event occurred at the eastern limb in the field of view (FOV) of Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft and was close to the disk center in the FOV of Extreme-UltraViolet Imager (EUVI) on board the behind Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. During eruption, the filament splits into two parts: the major part and runaway part. The major part flows along closed loops and experiences bifurcation at the loop top. Some of the materials move forward and reach the remote footpoint, while others return back to the original footpoint. The runaway part flows along open field lines, which is evidenced by a flare-related type III radio burst. The runaway part also undergoes bifurcation. The upper branch of escapes the corona and evolves into a jet-like narrow coronal mass ejection (CME) at a speed of 324 km s-1, while the lower branch falls back to the solar surface. A schematic cartoon is proposed to explain the event and provides a new mechanism of partial filament eruptions

  • Multiwavelength observations of a partial filament eruption on 13 June 2011

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: In this paper, we report the multiwavelength observations of the partial filament eruption associated with a C1.2 class flare in NOAA active region 11236 on 13 June 2011. The event occurred at the eastern limb in the field of view (FOV) of Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft and was close to the disk center in the FOV of Extreme-UltraViolet Imager (EUVI) on board the behind Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. During eruption, the filament splits into two parts: the major part and runaway part. The major part flows along closed loops and experiences bifurcation at the loop top. Some of the materials move forward and reach the remote footpoint, while others return back to the original footpoint. The runaway part flows along open field lines, which is evidenced by a flare-related type III radio burst. The runaway part also undergoes bifurcation. The upper branch of escapes the corona and evolves into a jet-like narrow coronal mass ejection (CME) at a speed of 324 km s-1, while the lower branch falls back to the solar surface. A schematic cartoon is proposed to explain the event and provides a new mechanism of partial filament eruptions

  • Oscillations and mass-draining that lead to a sympathetic eruption of a quiescent filament

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: In this paper, we present a multi-wavelength analysis to mass-draining and oscillations in a large quiescent filament prior to its successful eruption on 2015 April 28. The eruption of a smaller filament that was parallel and in close, 350 proximity was observed to induce longitudinal oscillations and enhance mass-draining within the filament of interest. The longitudinal oscillation with an amplitude of 25 Mm and 23 km underwent no damping during its observable cycle. Subsequently the slightly enhanced draining may have excited a eruption behind the limb, leading to a feedback that further enhanced the draining and induced simultaneous oscillations within the filament of interest. We find significant damping for these simultaneous oscillations, where the transverse oscillations proceeded with the amplitudes of 15 Mm and 14 km, while the longitudinal oscillations involved a larger displacement and velocity amplitude (57 Mm, 43 km). The second grouping of oscillation lasted for 2 cycles and had the similar period of 2 hours. From this, the curvature radius and transverse magnetic field strength of the magnetic dips supporting the filaments can be estimated to be 355 Mm and 34 G. The mass-draining within the filament of interest lasted for 14 hours. The apparent velocity grew from 35 km to 85 km, with the transition being coincident with the occurrence of the oscillations. We conclude that two filament eruptions are sympathetic, i.e. the eruption of the quiescent filament was triggered by the eruption of the nearby smaller filament.

  • Statistical analysis of circular-ribbon flares

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Circular-ribbon flares (CFs) are a special type of solar flares owing to their particular magnetic topology. In this paper, we conducted a comprehensive statistical analysis of 134 CFs from 2011 September to 2017 June, including four B-class, 82 C-class, 40 M-class, and eight X-class flares, respectively. The flares were observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft. The physical properties of CFs are derived, including the location, area ($A_{CF}$), equivalent radius ($r_{CF}$) assuming a semi-spherical fan dome, lifetime ($\tau_{CF}$), and peak SXR flux in 1$-$8 {\AA}. It is found that all CFs are located in active regions, with the latitudes between -30$^\circ$ and 30$^\circ$. The distributions of areas and lifetimes could be fitted with a log-normal function. There is a positive correlation between the lifetime and area. The peak SXR flux in 1$-$8 {\AA} is well in accord with a power-law distribution with an index of $-$1.42. For the 134 CFs, 57\% of them are accompanied by remote brightenings or ribbons. A positive correlation exists between the total length ($L_{RB}$) and average distance ($D_{RB}$) of remote brightenings. About 47\% and 51\% of the 134 CFs are related to type III radio bursts and jets, respectively. The association rates are independent of flare energies. About 38\% of CFs are related to mini-filament eruptions, and the association rates increase with flare classes. Only 28\% of CFs are related to CMEs, meaning that a majority of them are confined rather than eruptive events. There is a positive correlation between the CME speed and peak SXR flux in 1$-$8 {\AA}, and faster CMEs tend to be wider.

  • Recurrent coronal jets observed by SDO/AIA

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: In this paper, we carry out multiwavelength observations of three recurring jets on 2014 November 7. The jets originated from the same region at the edge of AR 12205 and propagated along the same coronal loop. The eruptions were generated by magnetic reconnection, which is evidenced by continuous magnetic cancellation at the jet base. The projected initial velocity of the jet2 is 402 km s. The accelerations in the ascending and descending phases of jet2 are not consistent, the former is considerably larger than the value of solar gravitational acceleration at the solar surface, while the latter is lower than solar gravitational acceleration. There are two possible candidates of extra forces acting on jet2 during its propagation. One is the downward gas pressure from jet1 when it falls back and meets with jet2. The other is the viscous drag from the surrounding plasma during the fast propagation of jet2. As a contrast, the accelerations of jet3 in the rising and falling phases are constant, implying that the propagation of jet3 is not significantly influenced byextra forces.

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

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: 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.