Observation of a large-scale filament eruption initiated by two small-scale erupting filaments pushing out from below

TL;DR

This paper reports a novel large-scale filament eruption triggered by two small-scale filaments pushing from below, leading to a significant flare and halo CME, offering new insights into multi-filament eruption mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a new eruption mechanism where the initial energy is transferred from smaller erupting filaments to a larger one, expanding understanding of filament eruption dynamics.

Findings

Large-scale filament eruption caused by small-scale filaments pushing from below.

Resulted in an M6.4 flare and a halo CME with geomagnetic effects.

Provides new insights into multi-filament eruption processes.

Abstract

Filament eruptions often result in flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Most studies attribute the filament eruptions to their instabilities or magnetic reconnection. In this study, we report a unique observation of a filament eruption whose initiation process has not been reported before. This large-scale filament, with a length of about 360 Mm crossing an active region, is forced to erupted by two small-scale erupting filaments pushing out from below. This process of multi-filament eruption results in an M6.4 flare in the active region NOAA 13229 on 25th February 2023. The whole process can be divided into three stages: the eruptions of two active-region filaments F1 and F2; the interactions between the erupting F1, F2, and the large-scale filament F3; and the eruption of F3. Though this multi-filament eruption occurs near the northwest limb of the solar disk, it produces a strong halo CME that causes a significant geomagnetic disturbance. Our observations present a new filament eruption mechanism, in which the initial kinetic energy of the eruption is obtained from and transported to by other erupting structures. This event provides us a unique insight into the dynamics of multi-filament eruptions and their corresponding effects on the interplanetary space.