No Arabic abstract
A three-dimensional numerical experiment of the launching of a hot and fast coronal jet followed by several violent eruptions is analyzed in detail. These events are initiated through the emergence of a magnetic flux rope from the solar interior into a coronal hole. We explore the evolution of the emerging magnetically-dominated plasma dome surmounted by a current sheet and the ensuing pattern of reconnection. A hot and fast coronal jet with inverted-Y shape is produced that shows properties comparable to those frequently observed with EUV and X-Ray detectors. We analyze its 3D shape, its inhomogeneous internal structure, and its rise and decay phases, lasting for some 15-20 min each. Particular attention is devoted to the field-line connectivities and the reconnection pattern. We also study the cool and high-density volume that appears encircling the emerged dome. The decay of the jet is followed by a violent phase with a total of five eruptions. The first of them seems to follow the general pattern of tether-cutting reconnection in a sheared arcade, although modified by the field topology created by the preceding reconnection evolution. The two following eruptions take place near and above the strong field-concentrations at the surface. They show a twisted, Omega-loop like rope expanding in height, with twist being turned into writhe, thus hinting at a kink instability (perhaps combined with a torus-instability) as the cause of the eruption. The succession of a main jet ejection and a number of violent eruptions that resemble mini-CMEs and their physical properties suggest that this experiment may provide a model for the blowout jets recently proposed in the literature.
We investigate two successive flux rope (FR1 and FR2) eruptions resulting in two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on 2012 January 23. Both FRs appeared as an EUV channel structure in the images of high temperature passbands of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly prior to the CME eruption. Through fitting their height evolution with a function consisting of linear and exponential components, we determine the onset time of the FR impulsive acceleration with high temporal accuracy for the first time. Using this onset time, we divide the evolution of the FRs in the low corona into two phases: a slow rise phase and an impulsive acceleration phase. In the slow rise phase of the FR1, the appearance of sporadic EUV and UV brightening and the strong shearing along the polarity inverse line indicates that the quasi-separatrix-layer reconnection likely initiates the slow rise. On the other hand for the FR2, we mainly contribute its slow rise to the FR1 eruption, which partially opened the overlying field and thus decreased the magnetic restriction. At the onset of the impulsive acceleration phase, the FR1 (FR2) reaches the critical height of 84.4$pm$11.2 Mm (86.2$pm$13.0 Mm) where the decline of the overlying field with height is fast enough to trigger the torus instability. After a very short interval ($sim$2 minutes), the flare emission began to enhance. These results reveal the compound activity involving multiple magnetic FRs and further suggest that the ideal torus instability probably plays the essential role of initiating the impulsive acceleration of CMEs.
Flux emergence is widely recognized to play an important role in the initiation of coronal mass ejections. The Chen-Shibata (2000) model, which addresses the connection between emerging flux and flux rope eruptions, can be implemented numerically to study how emerging flux through the photosphere can impact the eruption of a pre-existing coronal flux rope. The models sensitivity to the initial conditions and reconnection micro-physics is investigated with a parameter study. In particular, we aim to understand the stability of the coronal flux rope in the context of X-point collapse and the effects of boundary driving in both unstratified and stratified atmospheres. In the absence of driving, we assess the behavior of waves in the vicinity of the X-point. With boundary driving applied, we study the effects of reconnection micro-physics and atmospheric stratification on the eruption. We find that the Chen-Shibata equilibrium can be unstable to an X-point collapse even in the absence of driving due to wave accumulation at the X-point. However, the equilibrium can be stabilized by reducing the compressibility of the plasma, which allows small-amplitude waves to pass through the X-point without accumulation. Simulations with the photospheric boundary driving evaluate the impact of reconnection micro-physics and atmospheric stratification on the resulting dynamics: we show the evolution of the system to be determined primarily by the structure of the global magnetic fields with little sensitivity to the micro-physics of magnetic reconnection; and in a stratified atmosphere, we identify a novel mechanism for producing quasi-periodic behavior at the reconnection site behind a rising flux rope as a possible explanation of similar phenomena observed in solar and stellar flares.
A joint campaign of various space-borne and ground-based observatories, comprising the Japanese Hinode mission (HOP~338, 20,--,30~September 2017), the GREGOR solar telescope, and the textit{Vacuum Tower Telescope} (VTT), investigated numerous targets such as pores, sunspots, and coronal holes. In this study, we focus on the coronal hole region target. On 24~September 2017, a very extended non-polar coronal hole developed patches of flux emergence, which contributed to the decrease of the overall area of the coronal hole. These flux emergence patches erode the coronal hole and transform the area into a more quiet-Sun-like area, whereby bipolar magnetic structures play an important role. Conversely, flux cancellation leads to the reduction of opposite-polarity magnetic fields and to an increase in the area of the coronal hole. Other global coronal hole characteristics, including the evolution of the associated magnetic flux and the aforementioned area evolution in the EUV, are studied using data of the textit{Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager} (HMI) and textit{Atmospheric Imaging Assembly} (AIA) onboard the textit{Solar Dynamics Observatory} (SDO). The interplanetary medium parameters of the solar wind display parameters compatible with the presence of the coronal hole. Furthermore, a particular transient is found in those parameters.
On 2016 September 20, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph observed an active region during its earliest emerging phase for almost 7 hours. The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory observed continuous emergence of small-scale magnetic bipoles with a rate of $sim$10$^{16}$ Mx~s$^{-1}$. The emergence of magnetic fluxes and interactions between different polarities lead to frequent occurrence of ultraviolet (UV) bursts, which exhibit as intense transient brightenings in the 1400 AA{} images. In the meantime, discrete small patches with the same magnetic polarity tend to move together and merge, leading to enhancement of the magnetic fields and thus formation of pores (small sunspots) at some locations. The spectra of these UV bursts are characterized by the superposition of several chromospheric absorption lines on the greatly broadened profiles of some emission lines formed at typical transition region temperatures, suggesting heating of the local materials to a few tens of thousands of kelvin in the lower atmosphere by magnetic reconnection. Some bursts reveal blue and red shifts of $sim$100~km~s$^{-1}$ at neighboring pixels, indicating the spatially resolved bidirectional reconnection outflows. Many such bursts appear to be associated with the cancellation of magnetic fluxes with a rate of the order of $sim$10$^{15}$ Mx~s$^{-1}$. We also investigate the three-dimensional magnetic field topology through a magneto-hydrostatic model and find that a small fraction of the bursts are associated with bald patches (magnetic dips). Finally, we find that almost all bursts are located in regions of large squashing factor at the height of $sim$1 Mm, reinforcing our conclusion that these bursts are produced through reconnection in the lower atmosphere.
We describe and analyze observations by the Solar Dynamics Observatory of the emergence of a small, bipolar active region within an area of unipolar magnetic flux that was surrounded by a circular, quiescent filament. Within only eight hours of the start of the emergence, a partial splitting of the filament and two consecutive coronal mass ejections took place. We argue that all three dynamic events occurred as a result of particular magnetic-reconnection episodes between the emerging bipole and the pre-existing coronal magnetic field. In order to substantiate our interpretation, we consider three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations that model the emergence of magnetic flux in the vicinity of a large-scale coronal flux rope. The simulations qualitatively reproduce most of the reconnection episodes suggested by the observations; as well as the filament-splitting, the first eruption, and the formation of sheared/twisted fields that may have played a role in the second eruption. Our results suggest that the position of emerging flux with respect to the background magnetic configuration is a crucial factor for the resulting evolution, while previous results suggest that parameters such as the orientation or the amount of emerging flux are important as well. This poses a challenge for predicting the onset of eruptions that are triggered by flux emergence, and it calls for a detailed survey of the relevant parameter space by means of numerical simulations.