Brightenings Caused by Falling Filament Material on 2011 September 7
Abstract
Solar filaments exhibit a range of eruptive-like dynamic activity from the full, or partial, eruption of the filament mass and surrounding magnetic structure, as a CME, to a fully confined dynamic evolution or "failed" eruption. On 2011 September 7, a partial eruption of a filament was observed by SDO and STEREO, generating a substantial stream of returning filament material that exhibited a strong interaction with the solar surface. Similarly to the recently studied 2011 June 7 event, the impact sites show clear evidence of brightening in the observed EUV wavelengths due to energy release by the impact. We explore two plausible physical mechanisms that would cause such brightening: heating of the plasma due to the kinetic energy of the impacting material - compression of the plasma, or reconnection between the magnetic field of the low-laying loops with the field carried by the impacting material, or combination thereof. By analyzing the emission of the brightenings in several SDO/AIA wavelengths, and comparing the kinetic energy of the impacting material to the radiative energy we provide clues for the dominant mechanism of energy release involved in the observed brightenings. We compare this event to another in which we performed the same analysis (2011 June 7) where we determined that compression was the dominant mechanism.
- Publication:
-
Solar Heliospheric and INterplanetary Environment (SHINE 2016)
- Pub Date:
- July 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016shin.confE.138G