Formation of an active region filament driven by a series of jets

TL;DR

This study investigates how a solar filament in an active region forms through a series of jets that inject cool plasma and magnetic helicity, highlighting the role of magnetic reconnection and flux emergence.

Contribution

It provides detailed observational evidence linking jets, magnetic flux emergence, and filament formation, emphasizing the injection of mass and helicity by jets.

Findings

Jets supply sufficient mass to form the filament.

Jets inject magnetic helicity into the filament.

Plasma velocity along the filament axis is approximately 163 km/s.

Abstract

We present a formation process of a filament in active region NOAA 12574 during the period from 2016 August 11 to 12. Combining the observations of GONG H$\alpha$, Hida spectrum and SDO/AIA 304 A, the formation process of the filament is studied. It is found that cool material ($T\sim10^4$ K) is ejected by a series of jets originating from the western foot-point of the filament. Simultaneously, the magnetic flux emerged from the photosphere in the vicinity of the western foot-point of the filament. These observations suggest that cool material in the low atmosphere can be directly injected into the upper atmosphere and the jets are triggered by the magnetic reconnection between pre-existing magnetic fields and new emerging magnetic fields. Detailed study of a jet at 18:02 UT on August 11 with GST/BBSO TiO observations reveals that some dark threads appeared in the vicinity of the western foot-point after the jet and the projection velocity of plasma along the filament axis was about 162.6$\pm$5.4 km/s. Using with DST/Hida observations, we find that the injected plasma by a jet at 00:42 UT on August 12 was rotating. Therefore, we conclude that the jets not only supplied the material for the filament, but also injected the helicity into the filament simultaneously. Comparing the quantity of mass injection by the jets with the mass of the filament, we conclude that the estimated mass loading by the jets is sufficient to account for the mass in the filament.