L. van Driel-Gesztelyi, Daniel N. Baker, Tibor Török, Etienne Pariat, L. M. Green, D. R. Williams, J. Carlyle, G. Valori, Pascal Démoulin, S. A. Matthews, Bernhard Kliem, J.-M. Malherbe

• During an unusually massive filament eruption on 7 June 2011, SDO/AIA imaged for the first time significant EUV emission around a magnetic reconnection region in the solar corona. The reconnection occurred between magnetic fields of the laterally expanding CME and a neighbouring active region. A pre-existing quasi-separatrix layer was activated in the process. This scenario is supported by data-constrained numerical simulations of the eruption. Observations show that dense cool filament plasma was re-directed and heated in situ, producing coronal-temperature emission around the reconnection region. These results provide the first direct observational evidence, supported by MHD simulations and magnetic modelling, that a large-scale re-configuration of the coronal magnetic field takes place during solar eruptions via the process of magnetic reconnection.