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The nonassociation of coronal mass ejections with high energetic flares is sparse. For this reason, the magnetic conditions required for the confinedness of major flares is a topic of active research. Using multi-instrument observations, we investigated the evolution and effects of confinedness in an X3.1 flare, which occurred in active region (AR) 12192. The decrease of net fluxes in the brightening regions near the footpoints of the multisigmoidal AR in the photosphere and chromosphere, indicative of flux cancellation favoring tether-cutting reconnection (TCR), is observed using the magnetic field observations of HMI/SDO and SOT/Hinode, respectively. The analysis of spectropolarimetric data obtained by the Interferometric Bidimensional Spectrometer over the brightening regions suggests untwisting of field lines, which further supports TCR. Filaments near the polarity inversion line region, resulting from TCR of low-lying sheared loops, undergo merging and form an elongated filament. The temperature and density differences between the footpoints of the merged filament, revealed by DEM analysis, cause streaming and counterstreaming of the plasma flow along the filament and unload at its footpoints with an average velocity of ≈40 km s ^−1 . This results in a decrease of the mass of the filament (density decreased by >50%), leading to its rise and expansion outward. However, due to strong strapping flux, the filament separates itself instead of erupting. Further, the evolution of nonpotential parameters describes the characteristics of confinedness of the flare. Our study suggests that the sigmoid–filament system exhibits upward catastrophe due to mass unloading but gets suppressed by strong confinement of the external poloidal field.

Sunquakes are created by the hydrodynamic response of the lower atmosphere to a sudden deposition of energy and momentum. In this study, we investigate a sunquake that occurred in NOAA active region 11675 on 2013 February 17. Observations of the corona, chromosphere, and photosphere are brought together for the first time with a nonlinear force-free model of the active region’s magnetic field in order to probe the magnetic environment in which the sunquake was initiated. We find that the sunquake was associated with the destabilization of a flux rope and an associated M-class GOES flare. Active region 11675 was in its emergence phase at the time of the sunquake and photospheric motions caused by the emergence heavily modified the flux rope and its associated quasi-separatrix layers, eventually triggering the flux rope’s instability. The flux rope was surrounded by an extended envelope of field lines rooted in a small area at the approximate position of the sunquake. We argue that the configuration of the envelope, by interacting with the expanding flux rope, created a “magnetic lens” that may have focussed energy on one particular location of the photosphere, creating the necessary conditions for the initiation of the sunquake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an analysis of multi-instrument space- and ground-based observations relevant to a C4.1 solar flare that occurred in the active region (AR) NOAA 11267 on 2011 August 6. Solar Dynamics Observatory observations indicate that at the flare’s beginning, it was localized in the preceding sunspot of the AR, which exhibits a δ configuration. Along the polarity inversion line between its opposite polarities we find a large shear angle of about 80°. The helicity accumulation shows that the AR does not obey the general hemispheric helicity rule. At the flare peak, unique observations taken with the X-Ray Telescope aboard Hinode reveal that the bulk of the X-ray emission takes place in the δ-spot region, where the plasma heats up to K. During the gradual phase, we observe the development of a Y-shaped structure in the corona and in the high chromosphere. An extruding structure forms, being directed from the emitting region above the δ spot toward the following sunspot. This structure cools down in a few tens of minutes while moving eastward along a direction opposite to the flare ribbon expansion. Finally, remote brightenings are found at the easternmost footpoint of this structure, appearing as a third flare ribbon in the chromosphere. After some minutes, RHESSI measurements show that the X-ray emission is localized in the region close to the crossing point of the coronal Y-shaped structure. Simultaneously, high-resolution (0.″15) observations performed at the Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope indicate a decreasing trend of the Ca ii H intensity in the flare ribbons with some transient enhancements. All these findings suggest that this event is a manifestation of magnetic reconnection, likely induced by an asymmetric magnetic configuration in a highly sheared region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]