Possible Production of Solar Spicules by Microfilament Eruptions

Abstract

Abstract We examine Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) Goode Solar Telescope (GST) high spatial resolution (0.″06), high-cadence (3.45 s), Hα-0.8 Å images of central-disk solar spicules, using data of Samanta et al. We compare with coronal-jet chromospheric-component observations of Sterling et al. Morphologically, bursts of spicules, referred to as “enhanced spicular activities” by Samanta et al., appear as scaled-down versions of the jet’s chromospheric component. Both the jet and the enhanced spicular activities appear as chromospheric-material strands, undergoing twisting-type motions of ∼20–50 km s−1 in the jet and ∼20–30 km s−1 in the enhanced spicular activities. Presumably, the jet resulted from a minifilament-carrying magnetic eruption. For two enhanced spicular activities that we examine in detail, we find tentative candidates for corresponding erupting microfilaments, but not the expected corresponding base brightenings. Nonetheless, the enhanced-spicular-activities’ interacting mixed-polarity base fields, frequent-apparent-twisting motions, and morphological similarities to the coronal jet’s chromospheric-temperature component, suggest that erupting microfilaments might drive the enhanced spicular activities but be hard to detect, perhaps due to Hα opacity. Degrading the BBSO/GST-image resolution with a 1.″0-FWHM smoothing function yields enhanced spicular activities resembling the “classical spicules” described by, e.g., Beckers. Thus, a microfilament eruption might be the fundamental driver of many spicules, just as a minifilament eruption is the fundamental driver of many coronal jets. Similarly, a 0.″5-FWHM smoothing renders some enhanced spicular activities to resemble previously reported “twinned” spicules, while the full-resolution features might account for spicules sometimes appearing as 2D-sheet-like structures.