Possible Production of Solar Spicules by Microfilament Eruptions

Abstract

We examine Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) Goode Solar Telescope (GST) high spatial resolution (0.″06), high-cadence (3.45 s), H α -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 H α 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.