Eruption of a Bifurcated Solar Filament
Abstract
We study the partial eruption of a solar filament observed by the SDO and the STEREO-A spacecraft on 9 May 2012. This filament was located in active region NOAA 11475, and consisted of two distinct branches, separated in height above the active region's primary polarity-inversion line. For two days prior to the filament eruption, several threads of filament material were observed to connect the lower branch to the upper branch with evidence of a transfer of mass along them. The eruption commenced as a slow rise of the upper branch that began at 9 May 2012 23:40 UT, with the main eruption occurring half an hour later, producing a coronal mass ejection (CME). During the eruption, the upper branch was observed to rotate approximately 120 degrees in a counter-clockwise direction. We suggest that the mass transfer events also comprised a transfer of magnetic flux that led the upper branch of the filament to lose equilibrium as a result of a helical kink instability or torus instability.
- Publication:
-
AAS/Solar Physics Division Abstracts #44
- Pub Date:
- July 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013SPD....44...23Z