How eruptions of a small filament feed materials to a nearby larger-scaled filament

TL;DR

This study uses multi-wavelength solar observations to show how eruptions of a small filament can trigger magnetic reconnection, produce jets, and feed material into a nearby larger filament through shock-driven plasma flows.

Contribution

It reveals the mechanism by which small filament eruptions influence larger filaments via magnetic reconnection and plasma flows, a process not previously detailed.

Findings

Small filament eruptions drive two-sided jets through magnetic reconnection.

Heating at filament footpoints destabilizes nearby larger filaments.

Supersonic plasma flows feed materials into the larger filament.

Abstract

As one of the most common features in the solar atmosphere, filaments are significant not only in the solar physics but also in the stellar and laboratory plasma physics. With the New Vacuum Solar Telescope and the Solar Dynamics Observatory, here we report on multi-wavelength observations of eruptions of a small (30\arcsec) filament (SF) and its consequences while interacting with the ambient magnetic features including a large (300\arcsec) filament (LF). The eruptions of the SF drive a two-side-loop jet that is a result of magnetic reconnection between the SF threads and an over-lying magnetic channel. As a consequence of the eruption, the heating in the footpoints of the SF destabilises the barbs of the LF rooted nearby. Supersonic chromospheric plasma flows along the barbs of the LF are then observed in the \halpha\ passband and they apparently feed materials to the LF. We suggest they are shock-driven plasma flows or chromospheric evaporations, which both can be the consequences of the heating in the chromosphere by nonthermal particles generated in the magnetic reconnection associated with the two-side-loop jet. Our observations demonstrate that the destabilisation in the vicinity of the footpoints of a barb can drive chromospheric plasma feeding to the filament.