Multiwavelength Observations of the Precursors Before the Eruptive X4.9 Limb Solar Flare on 25 February, 2014: Current Sheet, Eruptive Filament, Flare and Eruption Onset in the Frame of the Tether-Cutting Magnetic Reconnection Scenario

Abstract: We present multiwavelength analysis of the pre-flare phase and onset of the powerful X4.9 near-limb eruptive solar flare on February 25, 2014, revealing the tether-cutting (TC) geometry. We aim at determining relationship between the region of pre-flare energy release with the regions where the flare started to develop, and to investigate a detailed chronology of energy release during the pre-flare time interval and the beginning of the impulse phase. Using X-ray, ultraviolet and radio microwave data we found that the pre-flare energy release site was compact and localized in the vicinity of TC interaction of magnetic structures near the polarity inversion line. The analysis indicates that a pre-flare current sheet (CS) could be in this region. Good correspondence between the location of the pre-flare and flare emission sources visible at the very beginning of the impulsive phase is shown. We found relationship between dynamics of the energy release in the pre-flare CS and formation of the future flare eruptive structure. The growth of the magnetic flux rope was associated with activation of plasma emissions, flows and an increase of UV radiation fluxes from the region where the pre-flare CS was located. The eruptive flux rope gradually grew due to feeding by magnetized plasma ejected from the reconnecting pre-flare CS. Finally, it is shown that the most probable trigger of the eruption was a local fast microflare-like magnetic reconnection in the pre-flare CS. Some local instability in the pre-flare sheet could lead to a transition from the slow to fast reconnection regime. As a result, an ejection from the sheet was initiated and the eruptive flux rope lost its stability. Then, the eruptive flux rope itself initiated formation of the main reconnecting flare CS as in the Standard Flare Model during its movement, and intense emissions associated with the impulsive phase were observed.