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Multiwavelength Observations of an Eruptive Flare: Evidence for Blast Waves and Break-Out

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Abstract

Images of an east-limb flare on 3 November 2010 taken in the 131 Å channel of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory provide a convincing example of a long current sheet below an erupting plasmoid, as predicted by the standard magnetic reconnection model of eruptive flares. However, the 171 Å and 193 Å channel images hint at an alternative scenario. These images reveal that large-scale waves with velocity greater than 1000 km s−1 propagated alongside and ahead of the erupting plasmoid. Just south of the plasmoid, the waves coincided with type-II radio emission, and to the north, where the waves propagated along plume-like structures, there was increased decimetric emission. Initially, the cavity around the hot plasmoid expanded. Later, when the erupting plasmoid reached the height of an overlying arcade system, the plasmoid structure changed, and the lower parts of the cavity collapsed inwards. Hot loops appeared alongside and below the erupting plasmoid. We consider a scenario in which the fast waves and the type-II emission were a consequence of a flare blast wave, and the cavity collapse and the hot loops resulted from the break-out of the flux rope through an overlying coronal arcade.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the referee for his/her constructive comments and suggestions, which improved the manuscript considerably. SDO is a mission for NASA’s Living With a Star (LWS) Program. We are thankful for the radio data obtained from NRH. PK is highly thankful to P.K. Manoharan for the helpful discussions on radio observations. This work is supported by the “Development of Korea Space Weather Center” project, and the KASI basic research fund.

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  1. Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), Daejeon, 305-348, Republic of Korea

    Pankaj Kumar

  2. Max-Planck Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, 37191, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany

    Pankaj Kumar & D. E. Innes

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  1. Pankaj Kumar
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Correspondence to Pankaj Kumar.

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Kumar, P., Innes, D.E. Multiwavelength Observations of an Eruptive Flare: Evidence for Blast Waves and Break-Out. Sol Phys 288, 255–268 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-013-0303-y

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