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A Dynamic Dextral-Sinistral Model for the Structure and Evolution of Prominence Magnetic Fields

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

E.R. Priest
E.R. Priest*
Affiliation:
Mathematical and Computational Sciences Department, St. Andrews University, St. Andrews, KY16 9SS, Scotland, U.K.

Abstract

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We propose the following coherent model for prominences.

  1. (i) They are composed of many fine threads whose mass we suggest has two kinds of origin. Some of the mass may be lifted from the upper photosphere in response to cancellation of magnetic flux in small flux tubes. If this rate of mass supply is slow then the mass needs to be supported, but if the mass supply rate is as large as the natural rate of draining then no support is necessary. However, much of the mass may not need to be supplied or supported at all, if it comprises dynamic threads of cool plasma that are in pressure balance with their hot surroundings and are continually forming from the corona and heating up again in response to a localised heating mechanism.

  2. (ii) The overall structure is of a large-scale flux tube along the polarity inversion line with an overlying arcade that links the network on either side of the filament channel. The structure of the channel and of barbs is explained by the distribution of flux sources along the channels, with majority polarity producing plagettes and minority polarity the barbs.

  3. (iii) The chirality of polar-crown prominences is suggested to be caused by a combination of subsurface flows, flux emergence and reconnection. By contrast, two generic types of low-latitude filament, namely those associated with unipolar flux tongues and with the emergence of new active regions near to remnant regions, are a natural consequence of nonuniform flux distribution and converging flux.

Type
Global Patterns
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 167: New Perspectives on Solar Prominences , 1998 , pp. 453 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1998

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