Formation of Opposite-Sign Magnetic Helicity by an Erupting Filament in a Coronal Mass Ejection

Abstract

Abstract It is unclear whether it is possible for magnetic helical fields of opposite signs to co-exist in a coronal mass ejection (CME). During filament eruption with high-cadence observations for the initial stage, evidence is found for the formation of right-handed helical fields in a rising dextral filament that is embedded in a CME with helical fields in a left-handed sense. The data include Mees multi-off-band $\mathrm{H}\alpha$ observations with 16 s cadence and TRACE 1600 Å observations of 2 s cadence. The filament material is ejected outward and is associated with the expanding CME, suggesting that both of the opposite-sign helical fields are injected into interplanetary space. In this paper, we consider the key observational features, including the formation of a coil-like structure (due to barb reconnections) and the alignment of reconnected field lines with the primary axis of the filament. It is found that they are consistent with the predicted changes during filament eruption by the filament model of Martin and McAllister. However, our results do not reject the filament model of Rust and Kumar. Moreover, a model that reconciles both of them seems to be more convenient for understanding the complicated observations. Therefore, the formation of opposite-sign helicity in an eruptive flux rope should be common for such types of filament eruptions.