DIRECT SPATIAL ASSOCIATION OF AN X-RAY FLARE WITH THE ERUPTION OF A SOLAR QUIESCENT FILAMENT

Abstract

Solar flares primarily occur in active regions. Hard X-ray flares have been found to occur only in active regions. They are often associated with the eruption of active region filaments and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). CMEs can also be associated with the eruption of quiescent filaments, not located in active regions. Here we report the first identification of a solar X-ray flare outside an active region observed by the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). The X-ray emission was directly associated with the eruption of a long, quiescent filament and fast CME. Images from RHESSI show this flare emission to be located along a section of the western ribbon of the expanding, post-eruption arcade. EUV images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory Atmospheric Imaging Assembly show no connection between this location and nearby active regions. Therefore the flare emission is found not to be located in or associated with an active region. However, a nearby, small, magnetically strong dipolar region provides a likely explanation for the existence and location of the flare X-ray emission. This emerging dipolar region may have also triggered the filament eruption.