Direct Evidence of an Eruptive, Filament-Hosting Magnetic Flux Rope Leading to a Fast Solar Coronal Mass Ejection

TL;DR

This study provides direct observational evidence of an eruptive magnetic flux rope with a filament in an active region, which leads to a fast coronal mass ejection, linking magnetic structures to solar eruptions.

Contribution

First direct imaging of an eruptive, filament-hosting magnetic flux rope in an active region, showing its evolution and connection to a fast CME.

Findings

Eruptive MFR exhibits a hot envelope and cooler core.

MFR exists over an hour before eruption, showing dynamic evolution.

Flare energy release correlates with MFR kinematics.

Abstract

Magnetic flux ropes (MFRs) are believed to be at the heart of solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs). A well-known example is the prominence cavity in the low corona that sometimes makes up a three-part white-light (WL) CME upon its eruption. Such a system, which is usually observed in quiet-Sun regions, has long been suggested to be the manifestation of an MFR with relatively cool filament material collecting near its bottom. However, observational evidence of eruptive, filament-hosting MFR systems has been elusive for those originating in active regions. By utilizing multi-passband extreme-ultra-violet (EUV) observations from SDO/AIA, we present direct evidence of an eruptive MFR in the low corona that exhibits a hot envelope and a cooler core; the latter is likely the upper part of a filament that undergoes a partial eruption, which is later observed in the upper corona as the coiled kernel of a fast, WL CME. This MFR-like structure exists more than one hour prior to its eruption, and displays successive stages of dynamical evolution, in which both ideal and non-ideal physical processes may be involved. The timing of the MFR kinematics is found to be well correlated with the energy release of the associated long-duration C1.9 flare. We suggest that the long-duration flare is the result of prolonged energy release associated with the vertical current sheet induced by the erupting MFR.