Oscillations and mass-draining that lead to a sympathetic eruption of a quiescent filament

TL;DR

This study analyzes how oscillations and mass-draining in a quiescent solar filament, triggered by a nearby eruption, lead to its own eruption, providing detailed observations of the dynamics involved.

Contribution

It presents a detailed multi-wavelength analysis of filament oscillations and mass-draining, revealing the mechanisms behind sympathetic filament eruptions.

Findings

Longitudinal oscillations persisted without damping.

Mass-draining duration was approximately 14 hours.

Eruption of a nearby filament triggered the main filament's eruption.

Abstract

In this paper, we present a multi-wavelength analysis to mass-draining and oscillations in a large quiescent filament prior to its successful eruption on 2015 April 28. The eruption of a smaller filament that was parallel and in close, 350 proximity was observed to induce longitudinal oscillations and enhance mass-draining within the filament of interest. The longitudinal oscillation with an amplitude of 25 Mm and 23 km underwent no damping during its observable cycle. Subsequently the slightly enhanced draining may have excited a eruption behind the limb, leading to a feedback that further enhanced the draining and induced simultaneous oscillations within the filament of interest. We find significant damping for these simultaneous oscillations, where the transverse oscillations proceeded with the amplitudes of 15 Mm and 14 km, while the longitudinal oscillations involved a larger displacement and velocity amplitude (57 Mm, 43 km). The second grouping of oscillation lasted for 2 cycles and had the similar period of 2 hours. From this, the curvature radius and transverse magnetic field strength of the magnetic dips supporting the filaments can be estimated to be 355 Mm and 34 G. The mass-draining within the filament of interest lasted for 14 hours. The apparent velocity grew from 35 km to 85 km, with the transition being coincident with the occurrence of the oscillations. We conclude that two filament eruptions are sympathetic, i.e. the eruption of the quiescent filament was triggered by the eruption of the nearby smaller filament.