Determination of Prominence Plasma Beta from the Dynamics of Rising Plumes

Abstract

The launch of Hinode satellite led to the discovery of rising plumes, dark in chromospheric lines, in quiescent prominences that propagate from large (~10 Mm) bubbles that form at the base of the prominences. These plumes present a very interesting opportunity to study Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) phenomena in quiescent prominences, but obstacles still remain. One of the biggest issues is that of the magnetic field strength, which is not easily measurable in prominences. In this paper we present a method that may be used to determine a prominence's plasma βwhen rising plumes are observed. Using the classic fluid dynamic solution for flow around a circular cylinder with an MHD correction, the compression of the prominence material can be estimated. This has been successfully confirmed through simulations; application to a prominence gave an estimate of the plasma beta as β=0.47 to 1.13 with an error of 0.080 for the range γ=1.4 to 1.7. Using this method it may be possible to estimate the plasma beta of observed prominences, therefore helping our understanding of a prominence's dynamics in terms of MHD phenomena.

23 Pages, 11 Figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (4)

• The Solar Optical Telescope for the Hinode Mission: An Overview
• The Magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Three Dimensions
• Large amplitude oscillation of a polar crown filament in the pre-eruption phase
• The discovery of geomagnetically trapped cosmic ray antiprotons

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Rayleigh-Taylor instability in prominences from numerical simulations including partial ionization effects
• The magnetic field configuration of a solar prominence inferred from spectropolarimetric observations in the He I 10830 A triplet
• The Dynamics of Funnel Prominences
• Rayleigh-Taylor instability in partially ionized compressible plasmas: one fluid approach
• Numerical simulations of large-amplitude oscillations in flux-rope solar prominences
• Analysis of Flows Inside Quiescent Prominences as Captured by Hinode/Solar Optical Telescope
• Increase in the amplitude of line-of-sight velocities of the small-scale motions in a solar filament before eruption
• Dynamics of descending knots in a solar prominence and their possible contributions to the heating of the local corona
• A formation mechanism for the large plumes in the prominence
• A first look into the magnetic field configuration of prominence threads using spectropolarimetric data