Eruption of a Kink-unstable Filament in NOAA Active Region 10696

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Abstract
We present rapid-cadence Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE) observations which show evidence of a filament eruption from active region NOAA 10696, accompanied by an X2.5 flare, on 2004 November 10. The eruptive filament, which manifests as a fast coronal mass ejection some minutes later, rises as a kinking structure with an apparently exponential growth of height within TRACE's field of view. We compare the characteristics of this filament eruption with MHD numerical simulations of a kink-unstable magnetic flux rope, finding excellent qualitative agreement. We suggest that, while tether weakening by breakout-like quadrupolar reconnection may be the release mechanism for the previously confined flux rope, the driver of the expansion is most likely the MHD helical kink instability.Comment: Accepted by ApJ Letters. 4 figures (Fig. 3 in two parts). For MPEG files associated with Figure 1, see: http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/~drw/papers/kink/ktrace.mpg http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/~drw/papers/kink/kmdi.mpg http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/~drw/papers/kink/ksimu.mp
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