Fine-scale structures and material flows of quiescent filaments observed by the New Vacuum Solar Telescope

Study of the small-scale structures and material flows associated with solar quiescent filaments is very important for understanding the formation and equilibrium of solar filaments. Using high resolution Ha data observed by the New Vacuum Solar Telescope, we present the structures of barbs and material flows along the threads across the spine in two quiescent filaments on 2013 September 29 and on 2012 November 2, respectively. During the evolution of the filament barb, several paral- lel tube-shaped structures formed and the width of the structures ranged from about 2.3 Mm to 3.3 Mm. The parallel tube-shaped structures merged together accompanied by material flows from the spine to the barb. Moreover, the boundary between the barb and surrounding atmosphere was very neat. The counter-streaming flows were not found to appear alternately in the adjacent threads of the filament. However, the large-scale patchy counter-streaming flows were detected in the filament. The flows in one patch of the filament have the same direction but flows in the adjacent patch have opposite direction. The patches of two opposite flows with a size of about 10＂ were alternately exhibited along the spine of the filament. The velocity of these material flows ranged from 5.6 km s^-1 to 15.0 km s^-1. The material flows along the threads of the filament did not change their direction for about two hours and fourteen minutes during the evolution of the filament. Our results confirm that the large-scale counter- streaming flows with a certain width along the threads of solar filaments exist and are coaligned well with the threads.

The north-south asymmetry of solar filaments separately at low and high latitudes in solar cycle 23

We present the results of a study on the north-south asymmetry of solar filaments at low（〈50°） and high（〉60°） latitudes using daily filament numbers from January 1998 to November 2008（solar cycle 23）. It is found that the northern hemisphere is dominant at low latitudes for cycle 23. However, a similar asymmetry does not occur for solar filaments at high latitudes. The present study indicates that the hemispheric asymmetry of solar filaments at high latitudes in a cycle appears to have little connection with that at low latitudes. Our results support that the observed magnetic fields at high latitudes include two components： one comes from the emergence of the magnetic fields from the solar interior and the other comes from the drift of the magnetic activity at low latitudes.

Properties of filaments in solar cycle 20-23 from McIntosh Archive

A filament is a cool, dense structure suspended in the solar corona. The eruption of a filament is often associated with a coronal mass ejection(CME), which has an adverse effect on space weather. Hence,research on filaments has attracted much attention in the recent past. The tilt angle of active region(AR)magnetic bipoles is a crucial parameter in the context of the solar dynamo, which governs the conversion efficiency of the toroidal magnetic field to poloidal magnetic field. Filaments always form over polarity inversion lines(PILs), so the study of tilt angles for these filaments can provide valuable information about generation of a magnetic field in the Sun. We investigate the tilt angles of filaments and other properties using McIntosh Archive data. We fit a straight line to each filament to estimate its tilt angle. We examine the variation of mean tilt angle with time. The latitude distribution of positive tilt angle filaments and negative tilt angle filaments reveals that there is a dominance of positive tilt angle filaments in the southern hemisphere and negative tilt angle filaments dominate in the northern hemisphere. We study the variation of the mean tilt angle for low and high latitudes separately. Investigations of temporal variation with filament number indicate that total filament number and low latitude filament number vary cyclically, in phase with the solar cycle. There are fewer filaments at high latitudes and they also show a cyclic pattern in temporal variation. We also study the north-south asymmetry of filaments with different latitude criteria.

A Confined Two-peaked Solar Flare Observed by EAST and SDO

The solar flare is one of the most violent explosions,and can disturb the near-Earth space weather.Except for commonly single-peaked solar flares in soft X-ray,some special flares show intriguing a two-peak feature that is deserved much more attentions.Here,we reported a confined two-peaked solar flare and analyzed the associated eruptions using high-quality observations from Educational Adaptive-optics Solar Telescope and Solar Dynamics Observatory.Before the flare,a magnetic flux rope(MFR)formed through partially tether-cutting reconnection between two sheared arches.The flare occurred after the MFR eruption that was confined by the overlying strong field.Interestingly,a small underlying filament immediately erupted,which was possibly destabilized by the flare ribbon.The successive eruptions were confirmed by the analysis of the emission measure and the reconnection fluxes.Therefore,we suggest that the two peaks of the confined solar flare are corresponding to two episodes of magnetic reconnection during the successive eruptions of the MFR and the underlying filament.

A new comprehensive dataset of solar filaments of one-hundred-year interval (Ⅱ) the poleward migration of polar crown filaments

Solar filaments,hypothermia and dense structures suspended in the solar corona are formed above the magnetic polarity inversion line.Polar crown filaments(PCFs)at high-latitude regions of the Sun are of profound significance to the periodic variation of solar activities.In this paper,we statistically analyze PCFs by using full disk Ha data from 1912 to 2018,which were obtained by Kodaikanal Solar Observatory(KODA,India),National Solar Observatory(NSO,USA),Kanzelhohe Solar Observatory(KSO,Austria),Big Bear Solar Observatory(BBSO,USA),and Huairou Solar Observing Station(HSOS,China).We first manually identify PCFs from every solar image based on the centennial data,and record the latitude and other features corresponding to the PCFs.Then we plot the PCF latitude distribution as a function of time,which clearly shows that PCFs rush to the poles at the ascending phase of each solar cycle.Our results show that the filaments drift toward mid-latitude covering solar cycle 15 to 24 after the PCFs reach the highest latitudes.The poleward migration rates of PCFs are calculated in ten solar cycles,and the range is about 0.12 degree to 0.50 degree per Carrington Rotation(CR).We also investigate the north-south(N-S)asymmetry of migration rates and the normalized N-S asymmetry index.

Nuclear lamina-like filaments and nuclear matrix in Allium cepa as revealed by scanning electron microscopy

In this study, freeze - fractured specimens of Allium cepa root tip meristems were examined under the scanning electron microscope (SEM). This technique permitted the visualization of the outer membrane of the nuclear envelope with nuclear pore complexes and polyribosomes. Some of the cell nuclei prepared with this procedure had fissures of various widths on their nuclear envelopes through which the nuclear lamina-like filaments (LLF) underneath the nucleoplasmic side of the envelopes were clearly visible. The diameters of these filaments varied between 25 and 125 nm. Many of the LLFs showed granular thickenings at places, and were attached to the inner surface of nuclear envelope in some regions. Similar LLFs were also seen at the peripheries of the freeze -fractured faces of nuclei. Meanwhile,the spatial relation between the nuclear matrix filaments (NMF) and other nuclear structures (nucleoli, chromatin and peripheral lamina - like filaments) was revealed in these fractured preparations. In addition, the methods and techniques in studying the nuclear lamina morphology and the roles played by NMFs in activities of various nuclear structures were discussed in brief.

Can we determine the filament chirality by the filament footpoint location or the barb-bearing？

We attempt to propose a method for automatically detecting the solar filament chirality and barb beating. We first introduce the concept of an unweighted undirected graph and adopt the Dijkstra shortest path algorithm to recognize the filament spine. Then, we use the polarity inversion line （PIL） shift method for measuring the polarities on both sides of the filament, and employ the connected components labeling method to identify the barbs and calculate the angle between each barb and the spine to determine the bearing of the barbs, i.e., left or right. We test the automatic detection method with Ha filtergrams from the Big Bear Solar Observatory （BBSO） Ha archive and magnetograms observed with the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager （HMI） on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory （SDO）. Four filaments are automatically detected and illustrated to show the results. The barbs in different parts of a filament may have opposite bearings. The filaments in the southern hemisphere （northern hemisphere） mainly have left-bearing （fight- bearing） barbs and positive （negative） magnetic helicity, respectively. The tested results demonstrate that our method is efficient and effective in detecting the bearing of filament barbs. It is demonstrated that the conventionally believed one-to-one correspondence between filament chirality and barb bearing is not valid. The correct detection of the filament axis chirality should be done by combining both imaging morphology and magnetic field observations.

A comparison study of a solar active-region eruptive filament and a neighboring non-eruptive filament

Solar active region （AR） 11283 is a very magnetically complex region and it has produced many eruptions. However, there exists a non-eruptive filament in the plage region just next to an eruptive one in the AR, which gives us an opportunity to perform a comparison analysis of these two filaments. The coronal magnetic field extrapolated using our CESE-MHD-NLFFF code reveals that two magnetic flux ropes （MFRs） exist in the same extrapolation box supporting these two filaments, respectively. Analysis of the magnetic field shows that the eruptive MFR contains a bald-patch separatrix surface （BPSS） co- spatial very well with a pre-eruptive EUV sigmoid, which is consistent with the BPSS model for coronal sigmoids. The magnetic dips of the non-eruptive MFRs match Hα observation of the non-eruptive filament strikingly well, which strongly supports the MFR-dip model for filaments. Compared with the non-eruptive MFR/filament （with a length of about 200 Mm）, the eruptive MFR/filament is much smaller （with a length of about 20 Mm）, but it contains most of the magnetic free energy in the extrapolation box and holds a much higher free energy density than the non-eruptive one. Both the MFRs are weakly twisted and cannot trigger kink instability. The AR eruptive MFR is unstable because its axis reaches above a critical height for torus instability, at which the overlying closed arcades can no longer confine the MFR stably. On the contrary, the quiescent MFR is very firmly held by its overlying field, as its axis apex is far below the torus-instability threshold height. Overall, this comparison investigation supports that an MFR can exist prior to eruption and the ideal MHD instability can trigger an MFR eruption.

Can an injection model replenish filaments in a weak magnetic environment?

We observed an Hα surge that occurred in NOAA Active Region 12401 on 2015 August 17, and we discuss its trigger mechanism, and kinematic and thermal properties. It is suggested that this surge was caused by a chromospheric reconnection which ejected cool and dense material with transverse velocity of about 21–28 km s-1 and initial Doppler velocity of 12 km s^-1. This surge is similar to the injection of newly formed filament materials from their footpoints, except that the surge here occurred in a relatively weak magnetic environment of 100 G. Thus, we discuss the possibility of filament material replenishment via the erupting mass in such a weak magnetic field, which is often associated with quiescent filaments. It is found that the local plasma can be heated up to about 1.3 times the original temperature, which results in an acceleration of about –0.017 km s^-2. It can lift the dense material up to 10 Mm and higher with an inclination angle smaller than 50°, namely the typical height of active region filaments, but it can hardly inject the material up to those filaments higher than 25 Mm, like some quiescent filaments. Thus, we think that the injection model does not work well in describing the formation of quiescent filaments.

Interaction and eruption of two filaments observed by Hinode, SOHO, and STEREO

We investigate the interaction between two filaments and the subsequent filament eruption event observed from different viewing angles by Hinode, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, and the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory. In the event, the two filaments rose high, interacted with each other, and finally were ejected along two different paths. We measure the bulk-flow velocity using spectroscopic data. We find significant outflows at the speed of a few hundreds of km s 1 during the filament eruption, and also some downflows at a few tens of km s-1 at the edge of the eruption region in the late stage of the eruption. The erupting material was composed of plasmas with a wide temperature range of 10-4–106 K. These results shed light on the filament nature and the coronal dynamics.

MHD Seismology of a loop-like filament tube by observed kink waves

We report and analyze observational evidence of global kink oscillations in a solar filament as observed in Ha by instruments administered by National Solar Observatory （NSO）/Global Oscillation Network Group （GONG）. An M1.1-class flare in active region （AR） 11692 occurred on 2013 March 15 and induced a global kink mode in the filament lying towards the southwest of AR 11692. We find periods of about 61-67 minutes and damping times of 92-117 minutes at positions of three ver- tical slices chosen in and around the filament apex. We find that the waves are damped. From the observed period of the global kink mode and damping timescale using the theory of resonant absorption, we perform prominence seismology. We estimate a lower cut-off value for the inhomogeneity length scale to be around 0.34-0.44 times the radius of the filament cross-section.

The surge-like eruption of a miniature filament

We report on the rare eruption of a miniature Hα filament that took the form of a surge. The filament first underwent a full development within 46 min and then began to erupt 9 min later, followed by a compact, impulsive X-ray class M2.2 flare with a two-ribbon nature only at the early eruption phase. During the eruption, its top rose, whereas the two legs remained rooted in the chromosphere and showed little swelling perpendicular to the rising direction. This led to a surge-like eruption with a narrow angular extent. Similar to the recent observations for standard and blowout X- ray jets by Moore et al., we thus define it as a ＂blowout Hα surge.＂ Furthermore, our observations showed that the eruption was associated with （1） a coronal mass ejection guided by a pre-existing streamer, （2） abrupt, significant, and persistent changes in the photospheric magnetic field around the filament, and （3） a sudden disappearance of a small pore. These observations thus provide evidence that a blowout surge is a small- scale version of a large-scale filament eruption in many aspects. Our observations further suggest that at least part of the Hα surges belong to blowout-type cases, and the exact distinction between the standard and blowout Hα surges is important in understanding their different origins and associated eruptive phenomena.

Eruption of an Active-Region Filament Driven by an Emerging Bipole

A section of an S-shaped filament underwent an eruption in a sigmoidal active region （AR 8027） with S-shaped coronal structure, which was clearly driven by a bipole emerging below the NW end of the filament. The bipole with two separating poles showed typical characteristics of emerging flux region （EFR） and its axis rotated counterclockwise. Two canceiling magnetic features （CMFs） were formed between the two poles and adjacent flux with opposite polarity and substantial flux cancellation occurred in them. Along with the bipole emergence the filament was strongly disturbed. Just before the filament eruption, two X-ray loops overlying the filament brightened, an axial X-ray structure and then a cusp structure appeared. During the eruption first the whole filament rose and then its SE end broke away from the chromosphere, while its NW end remained stationary. Helical structure and motion were observed in the filament body and downward mass motion in the two ends. After the eruption, a major part of the filament remained and slowly returned to quiescence, and an X-ray arcade and an axial structure formed. These observations suggest that the eruption resuited from the interaction between the bipole and the overlying loops. We provide evidence that steady photospheric reconnection between their footprints took place in the two CMFs during the bipole emergence.

Evolution of a Long-lived Sunspot Group and Its Associated Solar-terrestrial Events

A long-lived sunspot group (AR9604) on the south hemisphere that lasted five solar rotations and produced some strong bursts is analyzed. The focus is on its evolving features. Its whole life was successfully maintained by four Emerging Flux Regions (EFRs). Apart from the one that lasted only a short time and did not produce any bursts, the other three EFRs have the following common features: (1) A positive writhe of magnetic flux tubes and a twist of the field lines of the same sign, indicating kink instability. (2) A clockwise rotation and a high tilt because the writhe was right-handed. (3) A compact 'island δ' structure of the sunspot group indicating concentrated kink instability. Since magnetic reconnection easily occurs at the kinked point of a very kink-unstable flux tube, these features should be the inducement of the strong bursts.

The Chiralities of Three Filaments in AR7500

An analysis of structure and evolution of three filaments in AR7500 ON May, 1993 is presented. The three filaments show the following remarkable peculiarities: 1) a sinistral filament lies between two dextral filaments and meets them at two cusps. One of the cusps is rooted in positive polarity plage region while the other in a small decaying spot with negative polarity. 2) Both chromospheric plagette associated fibrils near the filaments and the transverse magnetic fields of the photosphere beneath the filaments almost parallel to the long axis of these filaments, suggesting the dominance of axial field of filaments; the spots near filament’s ends, however, do not show clearly counterclockwise or clockwise superpenumbral fibril pattern. 3) The three filaments do not merge into a single filament during 8 day observation. This can be explained by considering that the magnetic fields along their long axes are in different directions at two cusps. When one of dextral filaments and the sinistral filarment eventually dissipate into fibrils connecting the opposite polarity regions, their jointing cusps can be still clearly observed due to their opposite chiralities.

A Filament-Associated Halo Coronal Mass Ejection

There are only a few observations published so far that show the initiation of a coronal mass ejection (CME) and illustrate the magnetic changes in the surface origin of a CME. Any attempt to connect a CME with its local solar activities is meaningful. In this paper we present a clear instance of a halo CME initiation. A careful analysis of magnetograms shows that the only obvious magnetic changes in the surface region of the CME is a magnetic flux cancellation underneath a quiescent filament. The early disturbance was seen as the slow upward motion in segments of the quiescent filament. Four hours later, the filament was accelerated to about 50 km s-1 and erupted. While a small part of the material in the filament was ejected into the upper corona, most of the mass was transported to a nearby region. About forty minutes later, the transported mass was also ejected partially to the upper corona. The eruption of the filament triggered a two-ribbon flare, with post-flare loops connecting the flare ribbons. A halo CME, which is inferred to be associated with the eruptive filament, was observed from LASCO/C2 and C3. The halo CME contained two CME events, each event corresponded to a partial mass ejection of the filament. We suggest that the magnetic reconnection at the lower atmosphere is responsible for the filament eruption and the halo CME.

Signature of high-order azimuthal MHD body modes in sunspot's low atmosphere

The five-minute oscillations inside sunspots appear to be the absorption of the solar p-mode. It is a potential tool to probe a sunspot＇s sub-structure. We studied the collective properties of five-minute oscillations in the power and phase distribution at the sunspot＇s umbra-penumbra boundary. The azimuthal distributions of the power and phase of five-minute oscillations enclosing a sunspot＇s umbra were obtained with images taken with the Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly （SDO/AIA）. The azimuthal modes were quantified with periodogram analysis and justified with significance tests. The azimuthal nodal structures in an approximately ax- ially symmetric sunspot AR 11131 （2010 Dec 08） were investigated. Mode numbers ra = 2, 3, 4, 7, 10 were obtained in both 1700 A and 1600A bandpasses. The 1600A channel also revealed an extra mode at m = 9. In the upper atmosphere （304 A）, fewer modes were detected at m = 3, 4, 7. The azimuthal modes in the sunspot＇s low atmo- sphere could be interpreted as high-order azimuthal MHD body modes. They were detected in the power and phase of the five-minute oscillations in sunspot AR 11131 with SDO/AIA data. Fewer modes were detected in the sunspot＇s upper atmosphere.

Coupling of small-and large-scale filament eruptions

We present observations of the eruption of a large-scale quiescent filament （LF） that is associated with the formation and eruption of a miniature filament （MF）. As a result of convergence and subsequent cancelation of opposite-polarity magnetic flux, MF was formed just below the spine of the LF＇s right seg- ment. Probably triggered by a nearby newly emerging flux, MF underwent a failed eruption immediately after its full development, which first ejected away from the spine of LF and then drained back to the Sun. This eruption no sooner started than the overlying LF＇s right segment began to rise slowly and the LF＇s other parts were also disturbed, and eventually the whole LF erupted bodily and quickly. These observa- tions suggest that the MF can serve as an intermediary that links the photospheric small-scale magnetic-field activities to the eruption of the overlying large filament. It appears that, rather than directly interacting with the supporting magnetic field of LF, small-scale flux cancelation and emergence in the LF＇s channel can manifest themselves as the formation and eruption of MF and so indirectly affect the stability of LE

Fabry-Prot based narrow band imager for solar filament observations

We have recently developed a narrow band imager（NBI） using an air gap based Fabry-P′erot（FP） interferometer at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore. Narrow band imaging is achieved by using an FP interferometer working in combination with an order sorting pre-filter. The NBI can be tuned to a different wavelength position on the line profile by changing the plate separation of the FP. The interferometer has a 50 mm clear aperture with a bandpass of ～247.8 m ？A and a free spectral range of～5.3 ？A at λ = 656.3 nm. The developed NBI is used to observe the solar filament in the Hα wavelength.The instrument is being used to image the Sun at chromospheric height and it is also able to scan the Hα spectral line profile at different wavelength positions. We have also made Doppler velocity maps at chromospheric height by taking the blue and red wing images at ±176 m ？A wavelength positions separately away from the line center of the spectral line. In this paper, we present a description of the NBI including lab test results of individual components and some initial observations carried out with this instrument.

Multiple cycles of magnetic activity in the Sun and Sun-like stars and their evolution

The wavelet transform method for high-quality time-frequency analysis is applied to sets of observations of relative sunspot numbers and stellar chromosphere fluxes of 10 Sun-like stars. Wavelet analysis of solar data shows that in a certain interval of time there are several cycles of activity with pe- riods of duration which vary considerably from each other： from quasi-biennial cycles to lO0-yr cycles. Cyclic activity was detected in almost all Sun-like stars that we examined, even those that previously were not considered as stars with cyclic activity according to analysis using a Scargle periodogram. The durations of solar and stellar cycles significantly change during the observation period.