Radio observations of rapid acceleration in a slow filament eruption/fast coronal mass ejection event

Abstract

We discuss a filament eruption/coronal mass ejection (CME) event associated with a flare of GOES class M2.8 that occurred on 2001 November 17. This event was observed by the Nobeyama Radio Heliograph (NoRH) at 17 and 34 GHz. NoRH observed the filament during its eruption both as a dark feature against the solar disk and a bright feature above the solar limb. The high cadence of the radio data allows us to follow the motion of the filament at high time resolution to a height of more than half a solar radius. The filament eruption shows a very gradual onset and then a rapid acceleration phase coincident with the launch of a fast halo CME. Soft X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) images show heating in a long loop underneath the filament prior to the flare. The NoRH height-time plot of the filament shows a roughly constant gradual acceleration for 1 hr, followed by a very abrupt acceleration coincident with the impulsive phase of the associated flare, and then a phase of constant velocity or much slower acceleration. This pattern is identical to that recently found to occur in the motion of flare-associated CMEs, which also show a sharp acceleration phase closely tied to the impulsive phase of the flare. When the rapid acceleration occurs in this event, the flare site and the filament are separated by ~0.5 R Θ , making it unlikely that a disturbance propagates from one location to the other. Models in which a disruption of the large-scale coronal magnetic field simultaneously permits the acceleration of the filament and the flare energy release seem to be a better explanation for this event.