A flare-triggered heating of a quiescent filament

Abstract

Using data obtained with the 20-cm Hα full-disk telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory and Fe xii 195 A EIT on SOHO, we analyze a sudden disappearance event of a quiescent filament in detail. The filament was located along the common boundary of the active regions NOAA 9672 (S19 E13) and NOAA 9673 (N03 E18). The filament disappeared during a time interval between 17:59 UT and 19:47 UT on 22 October 2001 immediately after the onset of a major flare, which occurred in the active region NOAA 9672. At about 23:23 UT of the same day, the filament began to reappear in Hα and, after about 15 hours, the filament recovered to its steady state with its size being slightly smaller than that before its disappearance. This filament disappearance event belongs to the thermal type of sudden filament disappearances, which is caused by an input of additional heat. The heating mechanism that leads to sudden thermal disappearances of quiescent filaments is still not well understood. This simple event, due to the explicit cause and effect relationship between the flare and the disappearance of the filament, shows us that the flare triggered some kind of heating mechanism which continued several hours. The heat may come from the flare via heat conduction from its ribbon or from the excitation of dissipating Alfven waves. However, from the data analysis, we conclude that the flare triggered an in-situ heating, which is likely caused by magnetic reconnection.