Hinode SOT observations of plume upflows and cascading downflows in quiescent solar prominences
Abstract
We present several Hinode SOT filtergram movies of quiescent solar prominences that show newly discovered "plume-like" upflows and cascading "waterfall-like" downflows that persist for the entire multi-hour duration of the observations. The flow speeds are on the order of 10 km/sec with typical widths of 400-700 km. Preliminary calculations show that if the upflows are buoyancy driven, the associated thermal perturbation is on the order of 10,000 K, sufficient to explain the dark appearance of the upflows in the interference filter passbands. In addition we observe rotational vortices and body oscillations within the prominences. These new observations challenge current magnetostatic models of solar prominences by showing that prominence plasmas are in constant motion, often in directions perpendicular to the magnetic field lines proposed by the models. TRACE, Hinode/EIS, and Hinode/XRT observations are used to investigate the differential topology of the flows across temperature regimes.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2007
- Bibcode:
- 2007AGUFMSH53A1065B
- Keywords:
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- 7507 Chromosphere;
- 7509 Corona;
- 7524 Magnetic fields;
- 7529 Photosphere;
- 7531 Prominence eruptions