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Model of a partial current-carrying torus loop anchored to the photosphere is analyzed. Conditions of the catastrophic loss of equilibrium are considered and corresponding value of the critical decay index of external magnetic field is found. Taking into account line-tying conditions leads to non-monotonous dependence of the critical decay index on the height of the apex and length of the flux rope (its endpoints separation). For relatively short flux ropes, the critical decay index is significantly lower than unity, which is in contrast to widespread models with the typical critical decay index above unity. The steep decrease of the critical index with height at low heights is due to the sharp increase of the curvature of the flux-rope axis that transforms from a nearly straight line to a crescent., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We analyze 16 failed filament eruptions observed near 24 solar cycle maximum from May 2013 to July 2014. No significant rotation of filament spines is observed during the ascent in all studied failed eruptions, which does not support kink-instability mechanism of triggering the eruptions. We calculate potential magnetic field distributions in the corona above the initial locations of the filaments to study their height dependence. In seven events, the vertical profiles of the decay index $n$ are monotonic. The other nine events occur in the regions with the switchback or saddle-like n-profiles. The direction of the horizontal field near the saddle bottom is turned through more than 100$^\circ$ relative its direction at the initial filament position, which reveals the quadrupolar magnetic configuration with null points in these regions. The eruptive filaments stop above the null points where the total Lorenz force is directed upward. The most reasonable force that can terminate filament ascending and balance the Lorenz force seems the gravity., Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are closely related to eruptive filaments and usually are the continuation of the same eruptive process into the upper corona. There are failed filament eruptions when a filament decelerates and stops at some greater height in the corona. Sometimes the filament after several hours starts to rise again and develops into the successful eruption with a CME formation. We propose a simple model for the interpretation of such two-step eruptions in terms of equilibrium of a flux rope in a two-scale ambient magnetic field. The eruption is caused by a slow decrease of the holding magnetic field. The presence of two critical heights for the initiation of the flux-rope vertical instability allows the flux rope to stay after the first jump some time in a metastable equilibrium near the second critical height. If the decrease of the ambient field continues, the next eruption step follows., 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We analyse observations of a saddle-like structure in the corona above the western limb of the Sun on 2017 July 18. The structure was clearly outlined by coronal loops with typical coronal temperature no more than 1 MK. The dynamics of loops showed convergence toward the centre of the saddle in the vertical direction and divergence in the horizontal direction. The event is a clear example of smooth coronal magnetic field reconnection. No heating manifestations in the reconnection region or magnetically connected areas were observed. Potential magnetic field calculations, which use as the boundary condition the SDO/HMI magnetogram taken on July 14, showed the presence of a null point at the height of 122" above the photosphere just at the centre of the saddle structure. The shape of field lines fits the fan-spine magnetic configuration above NOAA 2666., 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in PASA

We analyze multi-wavelength and multi-viewpoint observations of a helically twisted plasma jet formed during a confined filament eruption on 10-11 April 2013. Given a rather large scale event with its high spatial and temporal resolution observations, it allows us to clearly understand some new physical details about the formation and triggering mechanism of twisting jet. We identify a pre-existing flux rope associated with a sinistral filament, which was observed several days before the event. The confined eruption of the filament within a null point topology, also known as an Eiffel tower (or inverted-Y) magnetic field configuration results in the formation of a twisted jet after the magnetic reconnection near a null point. The sign of helicity in the jet is found to be the same as that of the sign of helicity in the filament. Untwisting motion of the reconnected magnetic field lines gives rise to the accelerating plasma along the jet axis. The event clearly shows the twist injection from the pre-eruptive magnetic field to the jet.

The most probable initial magnetic configuration of a CME is a flux rope consisting of twisted field lines which fill the whole volume of a dark coronal cavity. The flux ropes can be in stable equilibrium in the coronal magnetic field for weeks and even months, but suddenly they loose their stability and erupt with high speed. Their transition to the unstable phase depends on the parameters of the flux rope (i.e., total electric current, twist, mass loading etc.), as well as on the properties of the ambient coronal magnetic field. One of the major governing factors is the vertical gradient of the coronal magnetic field which is estimated as decay index (n). Cold dense prominence material can be collected in the lower parts of the helical flux tubes. Filaments are therefore good tracers of the flux ropes in the corona, which become visible long before the beginning of the eruption. The perspectives of the filament eruptions and following CMEs can be estimated by the comparison of observed filament heights with calculated decay index distributions. The present paper reviews the formation of magnetic flux ropes, their stable and unstable phases, eruption conditions, and also discusses their physical implications in the solar corona., 27 pages, 14 figures; to appear in Journal of Astrophysics & Astronomy (Special Issue; Eds: V. Fedun, A.K. Srivastava, R. Erdelyi, J.C. Pandey)

Interest to lateral details of the solar filament shape named barbs, motivated by their relationship to filament chirality and helicity, showed their different orientation relative to the expected direction of the magnetic field. While the majority of barbs are stretched along the field, some barbs seem to be transversal to it and are referred to as anomalous barbs. We analyse the deformation of helical field lines by a small parasitic polarity using a simple flux rope model with a force-free field. A rather small and distant source of parasitic polarity stretches the bottom parts of the helical lines in its direction creating a lateral extension of dips below the flux-rope axis. They can be considered as normal barbs of the filament. A stronger and closer source of parasitic polarity makes the flux-rope field lines to be convex below its axis and creates narrow and deep dips near its position. As a result, the narrow structure, with thin threads across it, is formed whose axis is nearly perpendicular to the field. The structure resembles an anomalous barb. Hence, the presence of anomalous barbs does not contradict the flux-rope structure of a filament.

Observations of jet- like phenomena near the solar limb are reported for a long time, first in H α (Secchi observations of spicules in the 1870 ies), and after, from eclipse high resolution coronal images taken in white-light (1920–1973) as spiky structures. EUV jets were reported in the 70 ies from rocket and space-borne CIV filtergrams and finally X-EUV jets were reported from SXT observations of Yohkoh and from EIT and CDS SoHO observations. There is now little doubt that they are of magnetic origin although no magnetic field measurements exist for these regions and thermo-dynamical models are still work out. New observations of both spicules and jets with the SOT/SXT of Hinode were subjected to an analysis showing the influence of the null point(s) of the magnetic field. The collective behavior of the H CaII SOT(Hinode) time sequences of processed with the Madmax operator images of limb spicules show the torsional effects which were partly suggested before from the interpretation of high resolution limb spectra taken on Russian coronagraphs and the VTT at SacPeak. 100 s and shorter period waves are recorded. We propose a reconnection process occurring at the top of an emerging twisted flux tube for explaining some peculiarities of the spicular eruptions and possibly, as a viable mechanism for explaining the SXR jet eruptions. The result of a numerical 3D modeling illustrates this erupting mechanism although the behavior of the magneto-plasma structure near a null point, as shown by coronal filtergrams, does not necessary imply reconnections, especially the case of jets making a long coronal ray we observed in white-light with Lasco C2.

We present the multiwavelength observations of a flux rope that was trying to erupt from NOAA AR 11045 and the associated M-class solar flare on 12 February 2010 using space-based and ground-based observations from TRACE, STEREO, SOHO/MDI, Hinode/XRT, and BBSO. While the flux rope was rising from the active region, an M1.1/2F class flare was triggered near one of its footpoints. We suggest that the flare triggering was due to the reconnection of a rising flux rope with the surrounding low-lying magnetic loops. The flux rope reached a projected height of ≈0.15R ⊙ with a speed of ≈90 km s−1 while the soft X-ray flux enhanced gradually during its rise. The flux rope was suppressed by an overlying field, and the filled plasma moved towards the negative polarity field to the west of its activation site. We found the first observational evidence of the initial suppression of a flux rope due to a remnant filament visible both at chromospheric and coronal temperatures that evolved a couple of days earlier at the same location in the active region. SOHO/MDI magnetograms show the emergence of a bipole ≈12 h prior to the flare initiation. The emerged negative polarity moved towards the flux rope activation site, and flare triggering near the photospheric polarity inversion line (PIL) took place. The motion of the negative polarity region towards the PIL helped in the build-up of magnetic energy at the flare and flux rope activation site. This study provides unique observational evidence of a rising flux rope that failed to erupt due to a remnant filament and overlying magnetic field, as well as associated triggering of an M-class flare.

New XRT observations of the north polar region taken from the X-ray Telescope (XRT) of the Hinode (Solar-B) spacecraft are used to analyze several time sequences showing small loop brightenings with a long ray above. We focus on the recorded transverse displacement of the jet and discuss scenarios to explain the main features of the events: the relationship with the expected surface magnetism, the rapid and sudden radial motion, and possibly the heating, based on the assumption that the jet occurs above a null point of the coronal magnetic field. We conclude that 3-D reconnection models are needed to explain the observational details of these events., Comment: 11 pages 8 figures

Solar filament shape in projection on disc depends on the structure of the coronal magnetic field. We calculate the position of polarity inversion lines (PILs) of coronal potential magnetic field at different heights above the photosphere, which compose the magnetic neutral surface, and compare with them the distribution of the filament material in H$\alpha$ chromospheric images. We found that the most of the filament material is enclosed between two polarity inversion lines (PILs), one at a lower height close to the chromosphere and one at a higher level, which can be considered as a height of the filament spine. Observations of the same filament on the limb by the {\it STEREO} spacecraft confirm that the height of the spine is really very close to the value obtained from the PIL and filament border matching. Such matching can be used for filament height estimations in on-disk observations. Filament barbs are housed within protruding sections of the low-level PIL. On the base of simple model, we show that the similarity of the neutral surfaces in potential and non-potential fields with the same sub-photospheric sources is the reason for the found tendency for the filament material to gather near the potential-field neutral surface., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, to appear in MNRAS

The curvature of thin coronal rays was measured during their passage above the solar polar regions. We found that the coronal rays were convex in the direction of their motion along the position angle. The pattern illustrates clearly Parker's idea on the spiral interplanetary magnetic field formation. However, the amount of deviation from radial direction was found to be 2–3 times larger than that estimated using the simple relation obtained from the conservation of angular momentum of a gas jet emitted by a rotating body. We discuss a possible reason for the discrepancy.

Filament eruption on 30 April - 1 May 2010, which shows the reconnection of one filament leg with a region far away from its initial position, is analyzed. Observations from three viewpoints are used for as precise as possible measurements of endpoint coordinates. The northern leg of the erupting prominence loop 'jumps' laterally to the latitude lower than the latitude of the originally southern endpoint. Thus, the endpoints reshuffled their positions in the limb view. Although this behaviour could be interpreted as the asymmetric zipping-like eruption, it does not look very likely. It seems more likely to be reconnection of the flux-rope field lines in its northern leg with ambient coronal magnetic field lines rooted in a quiet region far from the filament. From calculations of coronal potential magnetic field, we found that the filament before the eruption was stable for vertical displacements, but was liable to violation of the horizontal equilibrium. This is unusual initiation of an eruption with combination of initial horizontal and vertical flux-rope displacements showing a new unexpected possibility for the start of an eruptive event., Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures Accepted in MNRAS

The effects of a large coronal mass ejection (CME) on a solar coronal streamer located roughly 90 degrees from the main direction of the CME propagation observed on January 2, 2012 by the SOHO/LASCO coronagraph are analyzed. Radial coronal streamers undergo some bending when CMEs pass through the corona, even at large angular distances from the streamers. The phenomenon resembles a bending wave traveling along the streamer. Some researchers interpret these phenomena as the effects of traveling shocks generated by rapid CMEs, while others suggest they are waves excited inside the streamers by external impacts. The analysis presented here did not find convincing arguments in favor of either of these interpretations. It is concluded that the streamer behavior results from the effect of the magnetic field of a moving magnetic rope associated with the coronal ejection. The motion of the large-scale magnetic rope away from the Sun changes the surrounding magnetic field lines in the corona, and these changes resemble the half-period of a wave running along the streamer., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

A simple geometric model is proposed to explain the recently reported effect of the prolateness of the solar chromosphere. We assume that a specific dynamical part of the solar atmosphere above the 2 Mm level, being a mixture of moving up and down jets of chromospheric matter with the coronal plasma between them, is responsible for the solar prolateness. Due to the dynamic nature of this layer, the magnetic field is considered to play a very important role in the density distribution with the height, guiding the mass flows along the field lines. The difference of the magnetic field topology in the polar and the equatorial regions leads to different heights of the chromospheric limb. Calculations show a satisfactory coincidence with observations when the mean separation between opposite polarity concentrations is about 9 Mm. The possible observational signature of this network in low photospheric and chromospheric layers is discussed.

A saddle-like structure is clearly discerned in SOHO EIT images in the Fe wavebands in the active region NOAA 8113, from 6 to 10 December 1997, when the active region reached the solar limb. It appears after the emergence of a small patch of parasitic polarity near the footpoints of the loops forming the outer boundary of an arcade. There is a 3D null point in the center of the saddle. The height of the null is in good agreement with the relationship between the parasitic flux and the background magnetic field. In spite of the fact that a saddle-like or hyperbolic magnetic configuration is usually assumed as the necessary condition for magnetic field-line reconnection and magnetic energy release, no additional heating is observed inside the saddle structure. Moreover, interior parts of the saddle seem to be darker than the neighbouring loops of the arcade.

A hyperbolic flux-tube configuration containing a null point below the flux rope is considered as a pre-eruptive state of coronal mass ejections that start simultaneously with flares. We demonstrate that this configuration is unstable and cannot exist for a long time in the solar corona. The inference follows from general equilibrium conditions and from analyzing simple models of the flux-rope equilibrium. A direct consequence of the stable flux-rope equilibrium in the corona are separatrices in the horizontal-field distribution in the chromosphere. They can be recognized as specific "herring-bone structures" in a chromospheric fibril pattern., 12 pages, 5 figures

A filament eruption on 2010 October 21 observed from three different viewpoints by the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) is analyzed with invoking also data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and the Kanzelhoehe Solar Observatory. The position of the filament just before the eruption at the central meridian not far from the center of the solar disk was favorable for photospheric magnetic field measurements in the area below the filament. Because of this, we were able to calculate with high precision the distribution of the coronal potential magnetic field near the filament. We found that the filament began to erupt when it approached the height in the corona where the magnetic field decay index was greater than one. We determined also that during the initial stage of the eruption the filament moved along the magnetic neutral surface., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

We present observations of interactions between the two filament channels of different chiralities and associated dynamics that occurred during 2014 April 18 -- 20. While two flux ropes of different helicity with parallel axial magnetic fields can only undergo a bounce interaction when they are brought together, the observations at the first glance show that the heated plasma is moving from one filament channel to the other. The SDO/AIA 171 A observations and the PFSS magnetic field extrapolation reveal the presence of fan-spine magnetic configuration over the filament channels with a null point located above them. Three different events of filament activations, partial eruptions, and associated filament channel interactions have been observed. The activation initiated in one filament channel seems to propagate along the neighbour filament channel. We believe that the activation and partial eruption of the filaments bring the field lines of flux ropes containing them closer to the null point and trigger the magnetic reconnection between them and the fan-spine magnetic configuration. As a result, the hot plasma moves along the outer spine line toward the remote point. Utilizing the present observations, for the first time we have discussed how two different-chirality filament channels can interact and show interrelation., Comment: 30 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for Publication in ApJ

We analyze five events of the interaction of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) with the remote coronal rays located up to 90^\circ away from the CME as observed by the SOHO/LASCO C2 coronagraph. Using sequences of SOHO/LASCO C2 images, we estimate the kink propagation in the coronal rays during their interaction with the corresponding CMEs ranging from 180 to 920 km/s within the interval of radial distances form 3 R. to 6 R. . We conclude that all studied events do not correspond to the expected pattern of shock wave propagation in the corona. Coronal ray deflection can be interpreted as the influence of the magnetic field of a moving flux rope related to a CME. The motion of a large-scale flux rope away from the Sun creates changes in the structure of surrounding field lines, which are similar to the kink propagation along coronal rays. The retardation of the potential should be taken into account since the flux rope moves at high speed comparable with the Alfven speed., Accepted for Publication in Solar Physics

We present observations of a confined partial eruption of a filament on 2012 August 4, which restores its initial shape within 2 hr after eruption. From the Global Oscillation Network Group Hα observations, we find that the filament plasma turns into dynamic motion at around 11:20 UT from the middle part of the filament toward the northwest direction with an average speed of 105 km s–1. A little brightening underneath the filament possibly shows the signature of low-altitude reconnection below the filament eruptive part. In Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly 171 A images, we observe an activation of right-handed helically twisted magnetic flux rope that contains the filament material and confines it during its dynamical motion. The motion of cool filament plasma stops after traveling a distance of 215 Mm toward the northwest from the point of eruption. The plasma moves partly toward the right foot point of the flux rope, while most of the plasma returns after 12:20 UT toward the left foot point with an average speed of 60 km s–1 to reform the filament within the same stable magnetic structure. On the basis of the filament internal fine structure and its position relative to the photospheric magnetic fields, we find filament chirality to be sinistral, while the activated enveloping flux rope shows a clear right-handed twist. Thus, this dynamic event is an apparent example of one-to-one correspondence between the filament chirality (sinistral) and the enveloping flux rope helicity (positive). From the coronal magnetic field decay index, n, calculation near the flux rope axis, it is evident that the whole filament axis lies within the domain of stability (i.e., n < 1), which provides the filament stability despite strong disturbances at its eastern foot point.