Filament Eruptions near Emerging Bipoles

Abstract

It has been suggested in previous studies that quiescent prominences and filaments erupt preferentially in the vicinity of emerging magnetic flux. We describe three such filament eruptions observed during 1998 with the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Telescope on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. Comparison with magnetograms and with potential field extrapolations suggests that the new bipole enables the eruption by diverting the flux overlying the filament sideways or to greater heights, allowing the filament to rise out of its channel. Because eruptions sometimes occur in the absence of any observable flux emergence, however, we conclude that new flux may act as a strong catalyst but is not a necessary condition for filament destabilization.