Multiwavelength Observations of a Failed Flux Rope in the Eruption and Associated M-Class Flare from NOAA AR 11045

We present the multiwavelength observations of a flux rope that was trying to erupt from NOAA AR 11045 and the associated M-class solar flare on 12 February 2010 using space-based and ground-based observations from TRACE, STEREO, SOHO/MDI, Hinode/XRT, and BBSO. While the flux rope was rising from the active region, an M1.1/2F class flare was triggered near one of its footpoints. We suggest that the flare triggering was due to the reconnection of a rising flux rope with the surrounding low-lying magnetic loops. The flux rope reached a projected height of ≈0.15R _⊙ with a speed of ≈90 km s⁻¹ while the soft X-ray flux enhanced gradually during its rise. The flux rope was suppressed by an overlying field, and the filled plasma moved towards the negative polarity field to the west of its activation site. We found the first observational evidence of the initial suppression of a flux rope due to a remnant filament visible both at chromospheric and coronal temperatures that evolved a couple of days earlier at the same location in the active region. SOHO/MDI magnetograms show the emergence of a bipole ≈12 h prior to the flare initiation. The emerged negative polarity moved towards the flux rope activation site, and flare triggering near the photospheric polarity inversion line (PIL) took place. The motion of the negative polarity region towards the PIL helped in the build-up of magnetic energy at the flare and flux rope activation site. This study provides unique observational evidence of a rising flux rope that failed to erupt due to a remnant filament and overlying magnetic field, as well as associated triggering of an M-class flare.     

Probing the Role of Magnetic-Field Variations in NOAA AR 8038 in Producing a Solar Flare and CME on 12 May 1997

We carried out a multi-wavelength study of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) and an associated flare, occurring on 12 May 1997. We present a detailed investigation of magnetic-field variations in NOAA Active Region 8038 which was observed on the Sun during 7??C?16 May 1997. This region was quiet and decaying and produced only a very small flare activity during its disk passage. However, on 12 May 1997 it produced a CME and associated medium-size 1B/C1.3 flare. Detailed analyses of H?? filtergrams and SOHO/MDI magnetograms revealed continual but discrete surge activity, and emergence and cancellation of flux in this active region. The movie of these magnetograms revealed the two important results that the major opposite polarities of pre-existing region as well as in the emerging-flux region were approaching towards each other and moving magnetic features (MMF) were ejected from the major north polarity at a quasi-periodicity of about ten hours during 10??C?13 May 1997. These activities were probably caused by magnetic reconnection in the lower atmosphere driven by photospheric convergence motions, which were evident in magnetograms. The quantitative measurements of magnetic-field variations such as magnetic flux, gradient, and sunspot rotation revealed that in this active region, free energy was slowly being stored in the corona. Slow low-layer magnetic reconnection may be responsible for the storage of magnetic free energy in the corona and the formation of a sigmoidal core field or a flux rope leading to the eventual eruption. The occurrence of EUV brightenings in the sigmoidal core field prior to the rise of a flux rope suggests that the eruption was triggered by the inner tether-cutting reconnection, but not the external breakout reconnection. An impulsive acceleration, revealed from fast separation of the H?? ribbons of the first 150 seconds, suggests that the CME accelerated in the inner corona, which is also consistent with the temporal profile of the reconnection electric field. Based on observations and analysis we propose a qualitative model, and we conclude that the mass ejections, filament eruption, CME, and subsequent flare were connected with one another and should be regarded within the framework of a solar eruption.     

Extremely energetic 4B/X17.2 flare and associated phenomena

We observed 4B/X17.2 flare in Hα from super-active region NOAA 10486 at ARIES, Nainital. This is one of the largest flares of current solar cycle 23, which occurred near the Sun’s center and produced extremely energetic emission almost at all wavelengths from γ-ray to radio-waves. The flare is associated with a bright/fast full-halo earth directed CME, strong type II, type III and type IV radio bursts, an intense proton event and GLE. This flare is well observed by SOHO, RHESSI and TRACE. Our Hα observations show the stretching/de-twisting and eruption of helically twisted S shaped (sigmoid) filament in the south-west direction of the active region with bright shock front followed by rapid increase in intensity and area of the gigantic flare. The flare shows almost similar evolution in Hα, EUV and UV. We measure the speed of Hα ribbon separation and the mean value is ∼ 70 km s^-1. This is used together with photospheric magnetic field to infer a magnetic reconnection rate at three HXR sources at the flare maximum. In this paper, we also discuss the energetics of active region filament, flare and associated CME.     

Transequatorial Filament Eruption and Its Link to a Coronal Mass Ejection

We revisit the Bastille Day flare/CME Event of 2000 July 14, and demonstrate that this flare/CME event is not related to only one single active region (AR). Activation and eruption of a huge transequatorial filament are seen to precede the simultaneous filament eruption and flare in the source active region, NOAA AR 9077, and the full halo-CME in the high corona. Evidence of reconfiguration of large-scale magnetic structures related to the event is illustrated by SOHO EIT and Yohkoh SXT observations, as well as, the reconstructed 3D magnetic lines of force based on the force-free assumption. We suggest that the AR filament in AR9077 was connected to the transequatorial filament. The large-scale magnetic composition related to the transequatorial filament and its sheared magnetic arcade appears to be an essential part of the CME parent magnetic structure. Estimations show that the filament-arcade system has enough magnetic helicity to account for the helicity carried by the related CMEs. In addition, rather global magnetic connectivity, covering almost all the visible range in longitude and a huge span in latitude on the Sun, is implied by the Nancay Radioheliograph (NRH) observations. The analysis of the Bastille Day event suggests that although the triggering of a global CME might take place in an AR, a much larger scale magnetic composition seems to be the source of the ejected magnetic flux, helicity and plasma. The Bastille Day event is the first described example in the literature, in which a transequatorial filament activity appears to play a key role in a global CME. Many tens of halo-CME are found to be associated with transequatorial filaments and their magnetic environment.     

On Formation of the Sigmoidal Structure in Solar Active Region NOAA 8100

Using soft X-ray images taken by the Soft X-ray Telescope on board Yohkoh, line-of-sight magnetograms taken by SOHO/MDI and vector magnetograms taken at Beijing Astronomical Observatory, we have studied the formation of the sigmoidal structure in active region NOAA 8100 on 3–4 November 1997. The sigmoidal structure appeared after the occurrences of a series of flares accompanied by new magnetic flux emergence. This implies that reconnection may play a role in formation of this sigmoid structure. We calculated the self-helicity (twist) and mutual helicity of the active region before and after the formation of the sigmoidal structure and found that the mutual helicity decreased. The twist of the sigmoidal structure was higher than the twist of the emerging magnetic flux and exceeded the critical twist for kink in stability. This result suggests that the reconnection increased the twist of magnetic flux tubes by converting mutual helicity to self-helicity, supporting the previous studies by Berger (1998, 1999).     

Variations of Photospheric Magnetic Field Associated with Flares and CMEs

Using high-cadence magnetograms from the SOHO/MDI we have investigated variations of the photospheric magnetic field during solar flares and CMEs. In the case of a strong X-class flare of May 2, 1998, we have detected variations of magnetic field in a form of a rapidly propagating magnetic wave. During the impulsive phase of the flare we have observed a sudden decrease of the magnetic energy in the flare region. This provides direct evidence of magnetic energy release in solar flares. We discuss the physics of the magnetic field variations, and their relations to the Moreton Hα waves and the coronal waves observed by the EIT.     

Prominent Photospheric Downflows on Magnetic Neutral Line in a Delta-Type Sunspot

It is known that ??-type sunspot groups have a high flare productivity and produce strong flares. In particular, ?|?? type sunspots are the most active type of all. A ?|?? active region NOAA?9957 with frequent flux cancellations but without any marked flare activity during its decay phase was studied in this work. Using SOHO/MDI Dopplergrams and magnetograms, we detected continuous prominent downflow motions of 1500??C?1700?m?s^?1 for several hours on the magnetic neutral line in this region. In the downflow region, penumbral structures were observed to decay. We will interpret and discuss the phenomenon as a case of submergence of the magnetic flux.     

Statistical Properties Of Sunspots In 1996–2004: I. Detection, North–South Asymmetry And Area Distribution

The first statistical results in sunspot distributions in 1996–2004 obtained from the Solar Feature Catalogues (SFC) are presented. A novel robust technique is developed for automated identification of sunspots on SOHO/MDI white-light (WL) full-disk solar images. The technique applies image standardization procedures for elimination of the limb darkening and non-circular image shape, uses edge-detection methods to find the sunspot candidates and their edges and morphological operations to smooth the features and fill in gaps. The detected sunspots are verified with the SOHO/MDI magnetograms by strong magnetic fields being present in sunspots. A number of physical and geometrical parameters of the detected sunspot features are extracted and stored in the relational SFC database including umbra/penumbra masks in the form of run-length data encoding of sunspot bounding rectangles. The detection results are verified by comparison with the manual daily detection results in Meudon and Locarno Observatories in 2002 and by correlation (about 96%) with the 4 year sunspot areas produced manually at NOAA. Using the SFC data, sunspot area distributions are presented in different phases of the solar cycle and hemispheres which reveals a periodicity of the north–south asymmetry with a period of about 7–8 years. The number of sunspots increases exponentially with the area decrease with the index slightly increasing from −1.15 (1997) to −1.34 (2001).     

An EUV Jet and Hα Filament Eruption Associated with Flux Cancelation in a Decaying Active Region

Using data from the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE), Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), and Hida Observatory (HO), we present a detailed study of an EUV jet and the associated Hα filament eruption in a major flare in the active region NOAA 10044 on 29 July 2002. In the Hα line wings, a small filament was found to erupt out from the magnetic neutral line of the active region during the flare. Two bright EUV loops were observed rising and expanding with the filament eruption, and both hot and cool EUV plasma ejections were observed to form the EUV jet. The two thermal components spatially separated from each other and lasted for about 25 minutes. In the white-light corona data, a narrow coronal mass ejection (CME) was found to respond to this EUV jet. We cannot find obvious emerging flux in the photosphere accounting for the filament eruption and the EUV jet. However, significant sunspot decay and magnetic-flux cancelation owing to collision of opposite flux before the events were noticed. Based on the hard X-ray data from RHESSI, which showed evidence of magnetic reconnection along the main magnetic neutral line, we think that all of the observed dynamical phenomena, including the EUV jet, filament eruption, flare, and CME, should have a close relation to the flux cancelation in the low atmosphere.     

Hα Dimming Associated With the Eruption of a Coronal Sigmoid in the Quiet Sun

We report on the occurrence of Hα dimming associated with a sigmoid eruption in a quiet-sun region on 14 August 2001. The coronal sigmoid in soft X-ray images from the Yohkoh Soft X-ray Telescope was located over an Hα filament channel. Its eruption was accompanied by a flare of GOES X-ray class C2.3 and possibly associated with a halo coronal mass ejection (CME) observed with the Large Angle and Spectroscopic Coronagraphs (LASCO) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). During the eruption, coronal bipolar double dimming took place at the regions with opposite magnetic polarities around the two sigmoid ends, but the underlying chromospheric channel did not show observable changes corresponding to the coronal eruption. Different from the erupting coronal sigmoid itself, however, the coronal dimming had a detectable chromosphere counterpart, i.e., Hα dimming. By regarding the sigmoid as a coronal sign for a flux rope, these observations are explained in the framework of the flux rope model of CMEs. The flux rope is possibly deeply rooted in the chromosphere, and the coronal and Hα dimming regions mark its evacuated feet, through which the material is possibly fed to the halo CME.     

Velocity Characteristics of Rotating Sunspots

A statistical study is carried out to investigate the detailed relationship between rotating sunspots and the emergence of magnetic flux tubes. This paper presents the velocity characteristics of 132 sunspots in 95 solar active regions. The rotational characteristics of the sunspots are calculated from successive SOHO/MDI magnetograms by applying the Differential Affine Velocity Estimator (DAVE) technique (Schuck, 2006, Astrophys. J. 646, 1358). Among 82 sunspots in active regions exhibiting strong flux emergence, 63 showed rotation with rotational angular velocity larger than 0.4° h⁻¹. Among 50 sunspots in active regions without well-defined flux emergence, 14 showed rotation, and the rotation velocities tend to be slower, compared to those in emerging regions. In addition, we investigated 11 rotating sunspot groups in which both polarities show evidence for co-temporary rotation. In seven of these cases the two polarities co-rotate, while the other four are found to be counter-rotating. Plausible reasons for the observed characteristics of the rotating sunspots are discussed.     

Photospheric and Chromospheric Activity Associated with 3B Flare of February 27, 1992

We have analyzed the H filtergrams and vector magnetograms of the active region NOAA 7070, in which a 3B/X3.3 flare occurred on February 27, 1992. The average area per sunspot of this active region was in declining phase at the time of the flare. The vector magnetograms indicate that the magnetic field was non-potential at the flaring site. Besides non-potentiality, the longitudinal field gradient was found to be the highest at the region showing initial H brightening. Further, in H filtergrams no appreciable change in the morphology of the filament tracing the magnetic neutral line was noticed in the post-flare stage. Also, the photospheric vector magnetograms show considerable shear in post-flare magnetic field of the active region. In this paper we present the observations and discuss the possible mechanism responsible for the 3B/X3.3 flare.     

Weak-Field Magnetogram Calibration using Advanced Stokes Polarimeter Flux Density Maps – II. SOHO/MDI Full-Disk Mode Calibration

Cotemporal Nii 676.8 nm full-disk magnetograms from the Michelson Doppler Interferometer (MDI) instrument on SOHO and the Advanced Stokes Polarimeter (ASP) are quantitatively compared using observations of active region AR 8218, a large negative polarity sunspot group observed at S20 W22 on 13 May 1998. MDI produces flux density estimates based on a polarized line center-of-gravity algorithm using moderate spectral resolution filtergrams with approximately 4 arc sec angular resolution. The magnetograms are formed by an on-board image processor and sent to the ground where they are calibrated using an empirical model to produce flux density maps. The ASP uses high spectral resolution Stokes polarimetric observations to produce very high precision vector magnetic field maps at angular resolution values on the order of 1 arc sec in good seeing. We use ASP inversion results to create a reference ASP `longitudinal magnetic flux density map' with which to calibrate the MDI full-disk magnetograms. The magnetograms from each instrument are scaled to a common reference frame and co-aligned with an accuracy of about 1.6 arc sec. Regions of invalid data, poor field-of-view overlap, and sunspots are masked out in order to calibrate MDI predominately on the relatively vertical `weak-field' plage magnetic elements. Pixel-to-pixel statistical comparisons are used to determine an MDI magnetogram linear calibration relative to reference ASP flux density values. We find that the current Level-1.5 MDI full-disk calibration gives flux density values lower on average by a factor of 0.64±0.013 compared to the ASP reference in active region plage. In sunspot regions (penumbra and umbra) the factor is 0.69±0.007.     

A Multiple Flare Scenario where the Classic Long-Duration Flare Was Not the Source of a CME

A series of flares (GOES class M, M and C) and a CME were observed in close succession on 20 January 2004 in NOAA 10540. Radio observations, which took the form of types II, III and N bursts, were associated with these events. We use the combined observations from TRACE, EIT, Hα images from Kwasan, MDI magnetograms and GOES to understand the complex development of this event. Contrary to a standard interpretation, we conclude that the first two impulsive flares are part of the CME launch process while the following long-duration event flare represents simply the recovery phase. Observations show that the flare ribbons not only separate but also shift along the magnetic inversion line so that magnetic reconnection progresses stepwise to neighboring flux tubes. We conclude that “tether cutting” reconnection in the sheared arcade progressively transforms it to a twisted flux tube, which becomes unstable, leading to a CME. We interpret the third flare, a long-duration event, as a combination of the classical two-ribbon flare with the relaxation process following forced reconnection between the expanding CME structure and neighboring magnetic fields. Electronic Supplementary Material  The online version of this article () contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

The X10 Flare on 29 October 2003: Was It Triggered by Magnetic Reconnection between Counter-Helical Fluxes?

Vector magnetograms taken at Huairou Solar Observing Station (HSOS) and Mees Solar Observatory (MSO) reveal that the super active region (AR) NOAA 10486 was a complex region containing current helicity flux of opposite signs. The main positive sunspots were dominated by negative helicity fields, while positive helicity patches persisted both inside and around the main positive sunspots. Based on a comparison of two days of deduced current helicity density, pronounced changes associated with the occurrence of an X10 flare that peaked at 20:49 UT on 29 October 2003 were noticed. The average current helicity density (negative) of the main sunspots decreased significantly by about 50%. Accordingly, the helicity densities of counter-helical patches (positive) were also found to decay by the same proportion or more. In addition, two hard X-ray (HXR) “footpoints” were observed by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) during the flare in the 50 – 100 keV energy range. The cores of these two HXR footpoints were adjacent to the positions of two patches with positive current helicity that disappeared after the flare. This strongly suggested that the X10 flare on 29 October 2003 resulted from reconnection between magnetic flux tubes having opposite current helicity. Finally, the global decrease of current helicity in AR 10486 by ∼50% can be understood as the helicity launched away by the halo coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with the X10 flare. Electronic Supplementary Material The online version of this article () contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Photospheric Plasma Flows Around a Solar Spot

We study photospheric plasma flows in an active region NOAA 8375, by using uninterrupted high-resolution SOHO/MDI observations (137 intensity images, 44 hours of observations). The active region consists of a stable large spot and many small spots and pores. Analyzing horizontal flow maps, obtained with local correlation tracking technique, we found a system of stable persistent plasma flows existing in the active region. The flows start on either side of the sunspot and extend over 100′′ to the east. Our measurements show that the speed of small sunspots and pores, averaged over 44 hours, was about 100 m s⁻¹, which corresponds to root-mean-square longitudinal drifts of sunspots of 0.67°–0.76° day⁻¹. We conclude that these large-scale flows are due to faster proper motion of the large sunspot relative to the ambient photospheric plasma. We suggest that the flows may be a good carrier to transport magnetic flux from eroding sunspots into the outer part of an active region.     

Correlation Between Solar Flare Productivity and Photospheric Magnetic Field Properties

From a large number of SOHO/MDI longitudinal magnetograms, three physical measures including the maximum horizontal gradient, the length of the neutral line, and the number of singular points are computed. These measures are used to describe photospheric magnetic field properties including nonpotentiality and complexity, which is believed to be closely related to solar flares. Our statistical results demonstrate that solar flare productivity increases with nonpotentiality and complexity. Furthermore, the relationship between the flare productivity and these measures can be well fitted with a sigmoid function. These results can be beneficial to future operational flare forecast models.     

Determination of magnetic helicity content of solar active regions from SOHO/MDI magnetograms

Chae (2001) first proposed a method of self-consistently determining the rate of change of magnetic helicity using a time series of longitudinal magnetograms only, such as taken by SOHO/MDI. Assuming that magnetic fields in the photosphere are predominantly vertical, he determined the horizontal component of velocity by tracking the displacements of magnetic flux fragments using the technique of local correlation tracking (LCT). In the present paper, after briefly reviewing the recent advance in helicity rate measurement, we argue that the LCT method can be more generally applied even to regions of inclined magnetic fields. We also present some results obtained by applying the LCT method to the active region NOAA 10365 under emergence during the observable period, which are summarized as follows. (1) Strong shearing flows were found near the polarity inversion line that were very effective in helicity injection. (2) Both the magnetic flux and helicity of the active region steadily increased during the observing period, and reached 1.2 × 10²² Mx and 8 ×10⁴² Mx², respectively, 4.5 days after the birth of the active region. (3) The corresponding ratio of the helicity to the square of the magnetic flux, 0.05, is roughly compatible with the values determined by other studies using linear-force-free modeling. (4) A series of flares took place while the rate of helicity injection was high. (5) The choice of a smaller window size or a shorter time interval in the LCT method resulted in a bigger value of the LCT velocity and a bigger value of the temporal fluctuation of the helicity rate. (6) Nevertheless when averaged over a time period of about one hour or longer, the average rate of helicity became about the same within about 10%, almost irrespective of the chosen window size and time interval, indicating that short-lived, fluctuating flows may be insignificant in transferring magnetic helicity. Our results suggest that the LCT method may be applied to 96-minute cadence full-disk MDI magnetograms or other data of similar kind, to provide a practically useful, if not perfect, way of monitoring the magnetic helicity content of active regions as a function of time.     

Multiwavelength Study of the M8.9/3B Solar Flare from AR NOAA 10960

We present a multiwavelength analysis of a long-duration, white-light solar flare (M8.9/3B) event that occurred on 04 June 2007 from AR NOAA 10960. The flare was observed by several spaceborne instruments, namely SOHO/MDI, Hinode/SOT, TRACE, and STEREO/SECCHI. The flare was initiated near a small, positive-polarity, satellite sunspot at the center of the active region, surrounded by opposite-polarity field regions. MDI images of the active region show a considerable amount of changes in the small positive-polarity sunspot of δ configuration during the flare event. SOT/G-band (4305 Å) images of the sunspot also suggest the rapid evolution of this positive-polarity sunspot with highly twisted penumbral filaments before the flare event, which were oriented in a counterclockwise direction. It shows the change in orientation, and also the remarkable disappearance of twisted penumbral filaments (≈35?–?40%) and enhancement in umbral area (≈45?–?50%) during the decay phase of the flare. TRACE and SECCHI observations reveal the successive activation of two helically-twisted structures associated with this sunspot, and the corresponding brightening in the chromosphere as observed by the time-sequence of SOT/Ca?ii H line (3968 Å) images. The secondary, helically-twisted structure is found to be associated with the M8.9 flare event. The brightening starts six?–?seven minutes prior to the flare maximum with the appearance of a secondary, helically-twisted structure. The flare intensity maximizes as the secondary, helically-twisted structure moves away from the active region. This twisted flux tube, associated with the flare triggering, did not launch a CME. The location of the flare activity is found to coincide with the activation site of the helically-twisted structures. We conclude that the activation of successive helical twists (especially the second one) in the magnetic-flux tubes/ropes plays a crucial role in the energy build-up process and the triggering of the M-class solar flare without a coronal mass ejection (CME).