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Manifestation of Magnetic Flux Ropes in the Structure of Solar Prominences

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Abstract

The appearance of quiescent solar prominences most often resembles a wide curtain or a fence made of a vertical palisade. It is hard to imagine that such a structure can be connected or even formed by a magnetic flux rope, that is, a bundle of force lines twisted into a cylindrical helix, which sometimes clearly manifests itself in active region filaments. However, with a relatively small activation of the prominences, when the plasma composing them begins to move along the field lines, the structure of the magnetic flux rope can be discerned. An example of a quiescent prominence is shown, in which rotational motion is observed along helical trajectories outlining the flux rope. The rotation is clearly visible in the time-distance diagram, which is composed of narrow strips of images of the prominence along the trajectory of motion.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is grateful to the staff of the Big Bear Solar Observatory, the scientific groups of the SOHO, TRACE, SDO projects, and the amateur astronomer Alexander Golitschek, Darmstadt, Germany, for the opportunity to access the observational materials. SOHO is a joint project between ESA and NASA. SDO is NASA’s Living With a Star mission.

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  1. Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, the Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation (IZMIRAN), Russian Academy of Sciences, 108840, Moscow, Troitsk, Russia

    B. P. Filippov

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Filippov, B.P. Manifestation of Magnetic Flux Ropes in the Structure of Solar Prominences. Geomagn. Aeron. 63, 146–152 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016793222600771

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