Abstract:Images from the SWAP (Proba 2 mission) taken at 174A in the Fe IX/X lines are compared to simultaneous slitless flash spectra taken during the last solar total eclipse of July, 11 th 2010. Many faint low excitation emission lines together with the HeI and HeII Paschen Alpha chromospheric lines are recorded on eclipse spectra where regions of limb prominences are obtained with space-borne imagers. We consider a deep flash spectrum obtained by summing 80 individual spectra to show the intensity modulations of the continuum. Intensity depressions are observed around the prominences in both eclipse and SWAP images. The prominence cavities are interpreted as a relative depression of plasma density, produced inside the corona surrounding the prominences. Photometric measurements are shown at different scales and different, spectrally narrow, intervals for both the prominences and the coronal background.

At the time of the two last solar total eclipses of August 1st, 2008 in Siberia and July 11th, 2010 in French Polynesia, high frame rate CCD flash spectra were obtained. These eclipses occurred in quiet Sun period and after. The slitless flash spectra show two helium shells, in the weak Paschen α 4686 Å line of the ionized helium HeII and in the neutral helium HeI line at 4713 Å. The extensions of these helium shells are typically 3 Mm. In prominences, the extension of the interface with the corona is much more extended. The observations and analysis of these lines can properly be done only in eclipse conditions, when the intensity threshold reaches the coronal level, and the parasitic scattered light is virtually zero. Under the layers of 1 Mm above the limb, many faint low FIP lines were also seen in emission. These emission lines are superposed on the continuum containing absorption lines. The solar limb can be defined using the weak continuum appearing between the emission lines at the time of the second and third contact. The variations of the singly ionized iron line, the HeI and HeII lines and the continuum intensity are analyzed. The intensity ratio of ionized to neutral helium is studied for evaluating the ionization rate in low layers up to 2 Mm and also around a prominence.

The diameter of the Sun has been measured using Baily's beads during central eclipses, observed with portable telescopes. A blend of tiny emission lines produced in the first several hundred kilometers above the photosphere gives a light signal which prolonges the light curves of the beads. The simple criterion of light OFF/ON adopted in the previous approaches to define the timing of photosphere's disappearance/reappearance is modified. The technique of the limb darkening function reconstruction from the Baily's beads light curves is introduced here.