Solar eruptions are the leading driver of space weather, and it is vital for
space weather forecast to understand in what conditions the solar eruptions can
be produced and how they are initiated. The rotation of sunspots around their
umbral center has long been considered as an important condition in causing
solar eruptions. To unveil the underlying mechanisms, here we carried out a
data-driven magnetohydrodynamics simulation for the event of a large sunspot
with rotation for days in solar active region NOAA 12158 leading to a major
eruption. The photospheric velocity as recovered from the time sequence of
vector magnetograms are inputted directly at the bottom boundary of the
numerical model as the driving flow. Our simulation successfully follows the
long-term quasi-static evolution of the active region until the fast eruption,
with magnetic field structure consistent with the observed coronal emission and
onset time of simulated eruption matches rather well with the observations.
Analysis of the process suggests that through the successive rotation of the
sunspot the coronal magnetic field is sheared with a vertical current sheet
created progressively, and once fast reconnection sets in at the current sheet,
the eruption is instantly triggered, with a highly twisted flux rope
originating from the eruption. This data-driven simulation stresses magnetic
reconnection as the key mechanism in sunspot rotation leading to eruption.Comment: Accept by A&