629 research outputs found
Reconnection of a kinking flux rope triggering the ejection of a microwave and hard X-ray source. II. Numerical Modeling
Numerical simulations of the helical () kink instability of an
arched, line-tied flux rope demonstrate that the helical deformation enforces
reconnection between the legs of the rope if modes with two helical turns are
dominant as a result of high initial twist in the range . Such
reconnection is complex, involving also the ambient field. In addition to
breaking up the original rope, it can form a new, low-lying, less twisted flux
rope. The new flux rope is pushed downward by the reconnection outflow, which
typically forces it to break as well by reconnecting with the ambient field.
The top part of the original rope, largely rooted in the sources of the ambient
flux after the break-up, can fully erupt or be halted at low heights, producing
a "failed eruption." The helical current sheet associated with the instability
is squeezed between the approaching legs, temporarily forming a double current
sheet. The leg-leg reconnection proceeds at a high rate, producing sufficiently
strong electric fields that it would be able to accelerate particles. It may
also form plasmoids, or plasmoid-like structures, which trap energetic
particles and propagate out of the reconnection region up to the top of the
erupting flux rope along the helical current sheet. The kinking of a highly
twisted flux rope involving leg-leg reconnection can explain key features of an
eruptive but partially occulted solar flare on 18 April 2001, which ejected a
relatively compact hard X-ray and microwave source and was associated with a
fast coronal mass ejection.Comment: Solar Physics, in pres
Observations and modeling of the early acceleration phase of erupting filaments involved in coronal mass ejections
We examine the early phases of two near-limb filament destabilization
involved in coronal mass ejections on 16 June and 27 July 2005, using
high-resolution, high-cadence observations made with the Transition Region and
Coronal Explorer (TRACE), complemented by coronagraphic observations by Mauna
Loa and the SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The filaments' heights
above the solar limb in their rapid-acceleration phases are best characterized
by a height dependence h(t) ~ t^m with m near, or slightly above, 3 for both
events. Such profiles are incompatible with published results for breakout,
MHD-instability, and catastrophe models. We show numerical simulations of the
torus instability that approximate this height evolution in case a substantial
initial velocity perturbation is applied to the developing instability. We
argue that the sensitivity of magnetic instabilities to initial and boundary
conditions requires higher fidelity modeling of all proposed mechanisms if
observations of rise profiles are to be used to differentiate between them. The
observations show no significant delays between the motions of the filament and
of overlying loops: the filaments seem to move as part of the overall coronal
field until several minutes after the onset of the rapid-acceleration phase.Comment: ApJ (2007, in press
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