Magnetohydrodynamic interpretation of the motion of prominences.
Abstract
To clarify the relationship between the motion and the magnetic field in eruptions of chromosphere filaments (prominences), three types of prominence eruptions: arch type, loop type, and gigantic arch type, identified on the basis of their shapes, are analyzed. The mechanism by which the filament, regarded as a magnetic flux tube, is set in motion is studied by examining the stability of a magneto-fluid column (pinch). The growth rates of the instability are evaluated by solving numerically the eigenvalue problem, the onset of the ascending motion being ascribed to the screw-mode instability. In analyzing the causes of the existence of different types of motion, a method is proposed to solve numerically the three-dimensional MHD equation of motion, using Ritz's variational technique. It is shown that the characteristic motion of the arch-, loop-, and gigantic arch-type eruptions may be reproduced by perturbing a model sequence with decreasing pitch angles of the unperturbed helical magnetic field lines. A good agreement is found between the model-predicted type of motion and the observed values of the pitch angles of the filamentary structure in eruptive prominences.
- Publication:
-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan
- Pub Date:
- 1976
- Bibcode:
- 1976PASJ...28..177S
- Keywords:
-
- Magnetohydrodynamic Stability;
- Magnetohydrodynamics;
- Plasma Dynamics;
- Solar Magnetic Field;
- Solar Prominences;
- Chromosphere;
- Equations Of Motion;
- Euler-Lagrange Equation;
- H Alpha Line;
- Magnetic Flux;
- Variational Principles;
- Solar Physics