Abstract
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.
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Acknowledgements
I thank the New Jersey Institute of Technology/Big Bear Solar Observatory and the Global High Resolution H
Network for providing the data archive. Many thanks to the anonymous referee for constructive comments. This work was supported in part by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grants 12-02-00008 and 12-02-92692) and the Program # 22 of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
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Filippov, B. Electric Current Equilibrium in the Corona. Sol Phys 283, 401–411 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-013-0253-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-013-0253-4