Imaging and Spectral Observations of Quasi-Periodic Pulsations in a Solar Flare

We explore the Quasi-Periodic Pulsations (QPPs) in a solar flare observed by Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM), Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), and Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) on 2014 September 10. QPPs are identified as the regular and periodic peaks on the rapidly-varying components, which are the light curves after removing the slowly-varying components. The QPPs display only three peaks at the beginning on the hard X-ray (HXR) emissions, but ten peaks on the chromospheric and coronal line emissions, and more than seven peaks (each peak is corresponding to a type III burst on the dynamic spectra) at the radio emissions. An uniform quasi-period about 4 minutes are detected among them. AIA imaging observations exhibit that the 4-min QPPs originate from the flare ribbon, and tend to appear on the ribbon front. IRIS spectral observations show that each peak of the QPPs tends to a broad line width and a red Doppler velocity at C I, O IV, Si IV, and Fe XXI lines. Our findings indicate that the QPPs are produced by the non-thermal electrons which are accelerated by the induced quasi-periodic magnetic reconnections in this flare.

Multiwavelength observations of a partially eruptive filament on 2011 September 8

In this paper, we report our multiwavelength observations of a partial filament eruption event in NOAA active region 11283 on 2011 September 8. A magnetic null point and the corresponding spine and separatrix surface are found in the active region. Beneath the null point, a sheared arcade supports the filament along the highly complex and fragmented polarity inversion line. After being activated, the sigmoidal filament erupted and split into two parts. The major part rose at the speeds of 90$-$150 km s$^{-1}$ before reaching the maximum apparent height of $sim$115 Mm. Afterwards, it returned to the solar surface in a bumpy way at the speeds of 20$-$80 km s$^{-1}$. The rising and falling motions were clearly observed in the extreme-ultravoilet (EUV), UV, and H$alpha$ wavelengths. The failed eruption of the main part was associated with an M6.7 flare with a single hard X-ray source. The runaway part of the filament, however, separated from and rotated around the major part for $sim$1 turn at the eastern leg before escaping from the corona, probably along large-scale open magnetic field lines. The ejection of the runaway part resulted in a very faint coronal mass ejection (CME) that propagated at an apparent speed of 214 km s$^{-1}$ in the outer corona. The filament eruption also triggered transverse kink-mode oscillation of the adjacent coronal loops in the same AR. The amplitude and period of the oscillation were 1.6 Mm and 225 s. Our results are important for understanding the mechanisms of partial filament eruptions and provide new constraints to theoretical models. The multiwavelength observations also shed light on space weather prediction.