A Partial Eruption of a Sigmoid Filament in the Small Dipole Active Region 12734

Abstract

We present a detailed analysis of a partial eruption of a sigmoid filament lying along the polarity inversion line (PIL) of the small active region (AR) NOAA 12734 (with an area of 1.44 ×103 square megameters). The active filament was rooted in a dipole sunspot of the AR. The eruption was associated with a C1.3 flare and subsequent large-scale coronal disturbances. During its solar disk passage before the flare, the AR had the following characteristics: (1) Most of the time, the magnetic field lines in the AR showed a sigmoidal structure (‘L1’) in the low corona and arc-shaped loops (i.e., ‘L2’) in the upper atmosphere. (2) An ‘X’-shaped structure was formed between the original ‘S’-shaped magnetic loop (‘L1’) and the newly rising one (‘L3’) between the main positive and negative magnetic polarities of the sunspots, and the intersection point of flux ropes ‘L1’ and ‘L3’ corresponds well with the area where the initial extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) 1600 Å brightening of the flare occurred. (3) The AR disobeyed the hemispherical helicity rule and had magnetic twist and writhe of the same signs, i.e., its magnetic helicity/current helicity were positive in the northern hemisphere. (4) Sustained magnetic emergence and cancellation occurred before the flare. Therefore, the magnetic reconnection of highly twisted helical flux ropes under the confinement of the overlying magnetic fields is probably responsible for the partial eruption of the filament.