Abstract

The magnetic flux rope is among the most fundamental magnetic configurations in plasma. Although its presence after solar eruptions has been verified by spacecraft measurements near Earth, its formation on the Sun remains elusive, yet is critical to understanding a broad spectrum of phenomena. Here we study the dynamic formation of a magnetic flux rope during a classic two-ribbon flare. Its feet are identified unambiguously with conjugate coronal dimmings completely enclosed by irregular bright rings, which originate and expand outward from the far ends of flare ribbons. The expansion is associated with the rapid ribbon separation during the flare main phase. Counting magnetic flux through the feet and the ribbon-swept area reveals that the rope’s core is more twisted than its average of four turns. It propagates to the Earth as a typical magnetic cloud possessing a similar twist profile obtained by the Grad-Shafranov reconstruction of its three dimensional structure.

Details

Title
Buildup of a highly twisted magnetic flux rope during a solar eruption
Author
Wang, Wensi 1 ; Liu, Rui 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Wang, Yuming 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hu, Qiang 4 ; Shen, Chenglong 3 ; Jiang, Chaowei 5   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Zhu, Chunming 6 

1  CAS Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment, Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China 
2  CAS Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment, Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Astronautical Science and Technology, Hefei, China 
3  CAS Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment, Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China; Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information & Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China 
4  Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, USA 
5  Institute of Space Science and Applied Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China; SIGMA Weather Group, State Key Laboratory for Space Weather, Center for Space Science and Applied Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 
6  Department of Physics, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA 
Pages
1-11
Publication year
2017
Publication date
Nov 2017
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01207-x
ProQuest document ID
1961024986
Copyright
© 2017. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.