A Transient Coronal Sigmoid in Active Region NOAA 11909: Build-up Phase, M-class Eruptive Flare, and Associated Fast Coronal Mass Ejection

TL;DR

This study analyzes the formation, eruption, and associated phenomena of a transient coronal sigmoid in active region NOAA 11909, revealing the magnetic processes leading to a fast CME and flare, with detailed multi-wavelength observations.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the build-up and disruption of a transient coronal sigmoid, highlighting the role of flux cancellation and tether-cutting reconnection in CME initiation.

Findings

Formation of the sigmoid occurred about 1 hour before eruption.

The flux rope accelerated from slow to fast rise, leading to a CME speed of approximately 1085 km/s.

The sigmoid-to-arcade transformation was observed during the flare evolution.

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the formation and disruption of a coronal sigmoid from the active region (AR) NOAA 11909 on 07 December 2013, by analyzing multi-wavelength and multi-instrument observations. Our analysis suggests that the formation of `transient' sigmoid initiated $\approx$1 hour before its eruption through a coupling between two twisted coronal loop systems. A comparison between coronal and photospheric images suggests that the coronal sigmoid was formed over a simple $\beta$-type AR which also possessed dispersed magnetic field structure in the photosphere. The line-of-sight photospheric magnetograms also reveal moving magnetic features, small-scale flux cancellation events near the PIL, and overall flux cancellation during the extended pre-eruption phase which suggest the role of tether-cutting reconnection toward the build-up of the flux rope. The disruption of the sigmoid proceeded with a two-ribbon eruptive M1.2 flare (SOL2013-12-07T07:29). In radio frequencies, we observe type III and type II bursts in meter wavelengths during the impulsive phase of the flare. The successful eruption of the flux rope leads to a fast coronal mass ejection (with a linear speed of $\approx$1085 km s -1 ) in SOHO/LASCO field-of-view. During the evolution of the flare, we clearly observe typical "sigmoid-to-arcade" transformation. Prior to the onset of the impulsive phase of the flare, flux rope undergoes a slow rise ($\approx$15 km s -1 ) which subsequently transitions into a fast eruption ($\approx$110 km s -1 ). The two-phase evolution of the flux rope shows temporal associations with the soft X-ray precursor and impulsive phase emissions of the M-class flare, respectively, thus pointing toward a feedback relationship between magnetic reconnection and early CME dynamics.