In this letter, we present a spectacular eruptive flare (X8.2) associated with a coronal mass ejection (CME) on 2017 September 10 at the west limb of the Sun. A flux rope eruption is followed by the inflow, the formation of a current sheet and a cusp structure, which were simultaneously observed during the occurrence of this flare. The hierarchical layers of the cusp-shaped structure are well observed in 131Å observation. The scenario that can be created from these observations is very consistent with the predictions of some eruptive models. Except for the characteristics mentioned above in the process of the flare predicted by classical eruption models, the current sheet separating into several small current sheets is also observed at the final stage of the flux rope eruption. The quantitative calculation of the velocities and accelerations of the inflow, hot cusp structure, and post-flare loops is presented. The width of the current sheet is estimated to be about 3 × 10 3 km. These observations are very useful to understand the process of solar eruptions.

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process of topology change and energy release, taking place in plasmas on the Sun, in space, in astrophysical objects and in the laboratory. However, observational evidence has been relatively rare and typically only partial. Here we present evidence of fast reconnection in a solar filament eruption using high-resolution H-alpha images from the New Vacuum Solar Telescope, supplemented by extreme ultraviolet observations. The reconnection is seen to occur between a set of ambient chromospheric fibrils and the filament itself. This allows for the relaxation of magnetic tension in the filament by an untwisting motion, demonstrating a flux rope structure. The topology change and untwisting are also found through nonlinear force-free field modelling of the active region in combination with magnetohydrodynamic simulation. These results demonstrate a new role for reconnection in solar eruptions: the release of magnetic twist.

We analyzed multi-wavelength observations of three surges with a recurrent period of about 70 min in H α , EUV, and soft X-ray, which occurred in the quiet-sun region on 2000 November 3. These homologous surges were associated with small flares at the same base, but their exact footpoints were spatially separated from the flare. Each surge consisted of a cool H α component and a hot, EUV or soft X-ray component, which showed different evolutions not only in space but also in time. The EUV jets had slightly converging shapes, underwent more complicate development, showed clearly twisting structures, and appeared to open to space. The H α surges, however, were smaller and only traced the edges of the jets. They always occurred later than the jets but had dark EUV counterparts appearing in the bright jets. These surge activities were closely associated with two emerging bipoles and their driven flux cancellations at the base region, and were consistent with the magnetic reconnection surge model. The possible cause of the delay between the surges and jets, of the dark structures in the jets are discussed, along with the possible role of flux cancellations in generation of these surges.

We present a clear case study on the occurrence of two successive X-class flares including a decade-class flare (X9.3) and two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) triggered by shearing motion and sunspot rotation in active region NOAA 12673 on 2017 September 6. A shearing motion between the main sunspots with opposite polarities started on September 5 and even lasted after the second X-class flare on September 6. Moreover, the main sunspot with negative polarity rotated around its umbral center and another main sunspot with positive polarity also exhibited a slow rotation. The sunspot with negative polarity at the northwest of active region also began to rotate counter-clockwise before the onset of the first X-class flare, which is related to the formation of the second S-shaped structure. The successive formation and eruption of two S-shaped structures were closely related to the counter-clockwise rotation of three sunspots. The existence of a flux rope is found prior to the onset of two flares by using non-linear force free field extrapolation based on the vector magnetograms observed by SDO/HMI. The first flux rope corresponds to the first S-shaped structures mentioned above. The second S-shaped structure was formed after the eruption of the first flux rope. These results suggest that shearing motion and sunspot rotation play an important role in the buildup of the free energy and the formation of flux ropes in the corona which produces solar flares and CMEs.