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

Abstract

Developing an understanding of how magnetic fields can become entangled in a prominence is important for predicting a possible eruption. This work investigates the kinetic energy and vorticity associated with plasma motion residing inside quiescent prominences (QPs). These plasma flow characteristics can be utilized to improve our understanding of how the prominence maintains a stable magnetic field configuration. Three different contrast-enhanced solar prominence observations from Hinode/Solar Optical Telescope were used to construct velocity maps -- in the plane of the sky -- via a Fourier local correlation tracking program. The resulting velocities were then used to perform the first ever analysis of the two-dimensional kinetic energy and enstrophy spectra of a prominence. Enstrophy is introduced here as a means of quantifying the vorticity that has been observed in many QPs. The kinetic energy power spectral density (PSD) produced indices ranging from -1.00 to -1.60. There was a consistent anisotropy in the kinetic energy spectrum of all three prominences examined. Examination of the intensity PSD reveals that a different scaling relationship exists between the observed prominence structure and velocity maps. All of the prominences exhibited an inertial range of at least $0.8\le k\le 2.0\text{rads}{\text{Mm}}^{-1}$. Quasi-periodic oscillations were also detected in the centroid of the velocity distributions for one prominence. Additionally, a lower limit was placed on the kinetic energy density ($\epsilon \sim 0.22-7.04{\mathrm{km}}^2{\text{s}}^{-2}$) and enstrophy density ($\omega \sim 1.43-13.69\times 10^{-16}{\text{s}}^{-2}$) associated with each prominence.

arXiv comment55 pages, 13 figures, 5 tables, Accepted and Published in ApJ on Feb. 10, 2016, The Astrophysical Journal 2016

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• An exploration of heating mechanisms in a supra-arcade plasma sheet formed after a coronal mass ejection
• Quiescent prominence dynamics observed with the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope . II. Prominence Bubble Boundary Layer Characteristics and the Onset of a Coupled Kelvin-Helmholtz Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
• The PDFI_SS Electric Field Inversion Software
• Observations of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability driven by dynamic motions in a solar prominence
• Two-fluid simulations of Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a magnetized solar prominence thread. I. Effects of prominence magnetization and mass loading
• Impact of Dynamic State on the Mass Condensation Rate of Solar Prominences
• Magnetic field amplification and structure formation by the Rayleigh-Taylor instability
• Investigating prominence turbulence with Hinode SOT Dopplergrams
• Dynamics of descending knots in a solar prominence and their possible contributions to the heating of the local corona
• Simulating Rayleigh-Taylor induced magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in prominences
• Spectral Characteristics of the He I D3 Line in a Quiescent Prominence Observed by THEMIS
• Reconstruction of photospheric velocity fields from highly corrupted data