Eruption of a Kink-unstable Filament in NOAA Active Region 10696

David R. Williams (1) , Tibor Török (1, 2, 3) , Pascal Démoulin (2, 3) , Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi (1, 2, 3) , Bernhard Kliem (4)

1 UCL - University College of London [London]
2 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
3 Physique solaire
4 AIP - Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam

We present rapid-cadence Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) observations that show evidence of a filament eruption from NOAA active region 10696, accompanied by an X2.5 flare, on 2004 November 10. The eruptive filament, which manifests as a fast coronal mass ejection some minutes later, rises as a kinking structure with an apparently exponential growth of height within TRACE's field of view. We compare the characteristics of this filament eruption with MHD numerical simulations of a kink-unstable magnetic flux rope, finding excellent qualitative agreement. We suggest that while tether weakening by breakout-like quadrupolar reconnection may be the release mechanism for the previously confined flux rope, the driver of the expansion is most likely the MHD helical kink instability.

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]

David R. Williams, Tibor Török, Pascal Démoulin, Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi, Bernhard Kliem. Eruption of a Kink-unstable Filament in NOAA Active Region 10696. The Astrophysical journal letters, 2005, 628, pp.L163-L166. ⟨10.1086/432910⟩. ⟨hal-03742596⟩