Analysis of Flows Inside Quiescent Prominences as Captured by Hinode/Solar Optical Telescope

Freed, Michael; McKenzie, D. E.; Longcope, D. W.; Wilburn, M.

doi:10.3847/0004-637x/818/1/57

Cited by 20 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 47 publications

(70 reference statements)

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“…Schmieder et al (2010) used Doppler measurements of prominence flows combined with plane-of-sky velocities and concluded that the observed downflows are possibly just the projection of flows along the magnetic field, which would imply that at least some of the observed downflows would result from the accretion of cool material into the prominence. The observed dynamic motions have been found to be important for the excitation of turbulence in prominences (Leonardis et al 2012;Freed et al 2016;Hillier et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Observation of bi-directional jets in a prominence

Hillier

Polito

2021

A&A

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Quiescent prominences host a large range of flows, many driven by buoyancy, which lead to velocity shear. The presence of these shear flows could bend and stretch the magnetic field resulting in the formation of current sheets which can lead to magnetic reconnection. Though this has been hypothesised to occur in prominences, with some observations that are suggestive of this process, clear evidence has been lacking. In this paper we present observations performed on June 30, 2015 using the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph Si IV and Mg II slit-jaw imagers of two bi-directional jets that occur inside the body of the prominence. Such jets are highly consistent with what would be expected from magnetic reconnection theory. Using this observation, we estimate that the prominence under study has an ambient field strength in the range of 4.5−9.2 G with ‘turbulent’ field strengths of 1 G. Our results highlight the ability of gravity-driven flows to stretch and fold the magnetic field of the prominence, implying that locally, the quiescent prominence field can be far from a static, force-free magnetic field.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Observation of bi-directional jets in a prominence

Hillier

Polito

2021

A&A

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“…14 become out of phase. Some authors found breaks in the power spectra at a certain scale, (Freed et al 2016;Hillier et al 2017;Leonardis et al 2012) which might be related to the formation of the magnetic structures, which will be discussed in a forthcoming paper. The 3D configuration of the magnetic field, with a dominant component in the y-direction being out of phase with the in-plane component, may resemble a flux rope.…”

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confidence: 88%

Two-fluid simulations of Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a magnetized solar prominence thread

Braileanu

Lukin

Khomenko

et al. 2021

A&A

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Solar prominences are formed by partially ionized plasma with inter-particle collision frequencies, which generally warrant magnetohydrodynamic treatment. In this work, we explore the dynamical impacts and observable signatures of two-fluid effects in the parameter regimes when ion-neutral collisions do not fully couple the neutral and charged fluids. We performed 2.5D two-fluid (charge – neutrals) simulations of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) at a smoothly changing interface between a solar prominence thread and the corona. The purpose of this study is to deepen our understanding of the RTI and the effects of partial ionization on the development of the RTI using nonlinear two-fluid numerical simulations. Our two-fluid model takes into account viscosity, thermal conductivity, and collisional interaction between neutrals and charge: ionization or recombination, energy and momentum transfer, and frictional heating. In this paper, we explore the sensitivity of the RTI dynamics to the prominence equilibrium configuration, including the impact of the magnetic field strength and shear supporting the prominence thread, and the amount of prominence mass-loading. We show that at small scales, a realistically smooth prominence-corona interface leads to qualitatively different linear RTI evolution than that which is expected for a discontinuous interface, while magnetic field shear has the stabilizing effect of reducing the growth rate or eliminating the instability. In the nonlinear phase, we observe that in the presence of field shear the development of the instability leads to formation of coherent and interacting 2.5D magnetic structures, which, in turn, can lead to substantial plasma flow across magnetic field lines and associated decoupling of the fluid velocities of charged particles and neutrals.

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“…Also, the distribution with wavenumber k of the power spectral densities displayed a break in the distribution at scales of the order 10 3 km. Freed et al (2016) used a feature-tracking algorithm to investigate the plane-of-sky velocity field of prominences finding that the kinetic energy spectrum was anisotropic. used Hinode SOT Dopplergrams to determine the strength of turbulence in a prominence, finding the velocity spectrum was consistent with those expected from MHD turbulence theory, but that the heating rate from this turbulence would be very small.…”

Section: Dynamics Of Prominencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The magnetic Rayleigh–Taylor instability in solar prominences

Hillier

2017

Rev. Mod. Plasma Phys.

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The magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability is a fundamental instability of many astrophysical systems, and recent observations are consistent with this instability developing in solar prominences. Prominences are cool, dense clouds of plasma that form in the solar corona that display a wide range of dynamics of a multitude of spatial and temporal scales, and two different phenomena that have been discovered to occur in prominences can be understood as resulting from the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. The first is that of plumes that rise through quiescent prominences from low density bubbles that form below them. The second is that of a prominence eruption that fragments as the material falls back to the solar surface. To identify these events as the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability, a wide range of theoretical work, both numerical and analytical has been performed, though alternative explanations do exist. For both of these sets of observations, determining that they are created by the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability has meant that the linear instability conditions and nonlinear dynamics can be used to make estimates of the magnetic field strength. There are strong connections between these phenomena and those in a number of other astro, space and plasma systems, making these observations very important for our understanding of the role of the RayleighTaylor instability in magnetised systems.

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Analysis of Flows Inside Quiescent Prominences as Captured by Hinode/Solar Optical Telescope

Cited by 20 publications

References 47 publications

Observation of bi-directional jets in a prominence

Observation of bi-directional jets in a prominence

Two-fluid simulations of Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a magnetized solar prominence thread

The magnetic Rayleigh–Taylor instability in solar prominences

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