Multiwavelength observations of a partially eruptive filament on 2011 September 8

TL;DR

This study presents detailed multiwavelength observations of a partial filament eruption on 2011 September 8, revealing complex magnetic structures, eruption dynamics, and associated phenomena, which enhance understanding of filament eruptions and space weather forecasting.

Contribution

It provides new observational insights into the mechanisms of partial filament eruptions, including magnetic topology and eruption behavior, informing and constraining theoretical models.

Findings

Filament split into eruptive and non-eruptive parts.

Eruption associated with a faint CME and an M6.7 flare.

Triggered transverse oscillations in nearby coronal loops.

Abstract

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.