Eruption of a Kink-unstable Filament in Region NOAA 10696

David Williams, Tibor Toeroek, Pascal Demoulin, Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi, Bernhard Kliem

On 2005 November 10, TRACE observed an X2.5 flare in NOAA Active Region 10696. The observations were taken at very short cadence (~3.7s) in the ultraviolet 1600channel. The flare was accompanied by a filament eruption, whose initiation we investigate using both TRACE and SOHO images. We find signatures of tether weakening by both flux emergence and a lateral variation of "break-out". However, the evolution of the erupting filament is consistent with that of a flux rope undergoing the MHD kink instability. This suggests that the kink instability is the main driver of the eruption.

Correspondence

David Williams (drw@mssl.ucl.ac.uk), Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London

presentation

poster