A number of solar filaments/prominences demonstrate failed eruptions, when a filament at first suddenly starts to ascend and then decelerates and stops at some greater height in the corona. The mechanism of the termination of eruptions is not clear yet. One of the confining forces able to stop the eruption is the gravity force. Using a simple model of a partial current-carrying torus loop anchored to the photosphere and photospheric magnetic field measurements as the boundary condition for the potential magnetic field extrapolation into the corona, we estimated masses of 15 eruptive filaments. The values of the filament mass show rather wide distribution in the range of $4\times10^{15}$ – $270\times10^{16}$ g. Masses of the most of filaments, laying in the middle of the range, are in accordance with estimations made earlier on the basis of spectroscopic and white-light observations.

We are performed the digitization of the prominences from the full disk observations of the Sun in the CaIIK line Kodaikanal Observatory for the period 1904-1954. These data were supplemented by digitization of prominences data on Wolfer atlases for the period 1887-1900 and observations of Kislovodsk Observatory in the period 1957-2017. Particular attention was paid to study of the polar crown prominences drift time. The time interval of the prominence drift is ambiguous from the sunspot cycle amplitude.

Two cases of filament oscillations induced by large-scale coronal shock waves are presented. For the first case, a chain of transverse oscillating filaments are observed in a proper order after the passing of a shock wave, and it is found that the they were triggered by the surface component of the dome-shaped shock wave. For the second case, simultaneous transverse oscillation of a limb prominence and longitudinal oscillation in an on-disk filament are launched by a single shock wave. It is found that the interaction angle between the shock wave and the prominence axis is the key to launch transverse or longitudinal filament oscillations. In addition, filament magnetic fields are estimated, using the measured parameters.

To better understand the differences between coronal cloud prominences and channel prominences, we systematically identified and analyzed coronal cloud prominences recorded in SDO/AIA images at 304 Å from 2010 May 20 through 2012 April 28. For the 225 cases identified, their numbers vary directly with the sunspot number. Their durations are typically less than 3 days. Their most frequent maximum height is 90,000 + and - 10,000 km. We offer our hypothesis that many coronal cloud prominences originate from some of the mass of previously erupted filaments ejected high out of their filament channels; subsequently part of this mass falls and collects in leaky magnetic troughs among coronal magnetic fields which constrain the leaked mass to slowly drain downward along curved trajectories where it appears as coronal rain. Currently there is inadequate evidence for a convincing correspondence between either coronal cloud prominences or channel prominences with stellar prominences detected to date.

Solar eruptions are due to a sudden destabilization of force-free coronal magnetic fields. But the detailed mechanisms which can bring the corona towards an eruptive stage, then trigger and drive the eruption, and finally make it explosive, are not fully understood. A large variety of storage-and-release models have been developed and opposed to each other since 40 years. For example, photospheric flux emergence vs. flux cancellation, localized coronal reconnection vs. large-scale ideal instabilities and loss of equilibria, tether-cutting vs. breakout reconnection, and so on. The competition between all these approaches has led to a tremendous drive in developing and testing all these concepts, by coupling state-of-the-art models and observations. Thanks to these developments, it now becomes possible to compare all these models with one another, and to revisit their interpretation in light of their common and their different behaviors. This approach leads me to argue that no more than two distinct physical mechanisms can actually initiate and drive prominence eruptions: the magnetic breakout and the torus instability. In this view, all other processes (including flux emergence, flux cancellation, flare reconnection and long-range couplings) should be considered as various ways that lead to, or that strengthen, one of the aforementioned driving mechanisms.

Coronal Multi-channel Polarimeter (CoMP-S), developed by HAO/NCAR, has been introduced to regular operation at the Lomnicky Peak Observatory (High Tatras in northern Slovakia, 2633 m a.s.l.) of the Astronomical Institute of Slovak Academy of Sciences. We present here the technical parameters of the current version of the instrument and its potential for observations of prominences in the visual and near-IR spectral regions. The first results derived from observations of prominences in the Hα emission line taken during a coordinated observing campaign of several instruments in October 2012 are shown here.

Solar coronal cavities are regions of rarefied density and elliptical cross-section. The Coronal Multi-channel Polarimeter (CoMP) obtains daily full-Sun coronal observations in linear polarization, allowing a systematic analysis of the coronal magnetic field in polar-crown prominence cavities. These cavities commonly possess a characteristic “lagomorphic” signature in linear polarization that may be explained by a magnetic flux-rope model. We analyze the spatial relation between the EUV cavity and the CoMP linear polarization signature.

We use a 2.5-dimensional, fully thermodynamically and magnetohydrodynamically compatible model to imitate the formation process of normal polarity prominences on top of initially linear force-free arcades above photospheric neutral lines. In magnetic arcades hosting chromospheric, transition region, and coronal plasma, we perform a series of numerical simulations to do a parameter survey for multi-dimensional evaporation-condensation prominence models. The investigated parameters include the fixed angle of the magnetic arcade, the strength and spatial range of the localized chromospheric heating.

The poster was made of 323 average prominence magnetic fields reported on 24 synoptic maps. The paper first resumes the methods for the field derivation, and the different results of the whole program of these second generation Hanle effect observations. From their conclusions, it was possible to derive a unique field vector for each of the 323 prominences. The maps put in evidence a large scale structure of the prominence magnetic field, probably distorted by the differential rotation, which leads to a systematically small angle (on the order of 30°) between the field vector and the prominence long axis.

Using the eclipse observations, we construct the maps of quiescent prominence temperatures, electron densities, pressures and geometrical thicknesses. For this we use the RGB signal of prominence visible-light emission detected during the total solar eclipse on August 1, 2008 in Mongolia, and quasi-simultaneous Hα spectra taken at Ondřejov observatory. The method of disentangling the electron density and effective geometrical thickness was described by Jejčič & Heinzel (2009) and is used here for the first time to analyse the spatial variations of various prominence parameters.

An enormous solar tornado was observed by SDO/AIA on 25 September 2011. It was mainly associated with a quiescent prominence with an overlying coronal cavity. We investigate the triggering mechanism of the solar tornado by using the data from two instruments: SDO/AIA and STEREO-A/EUVI, covering the Sun from two directions. The tornado appeared near to the active region NOAA 11303 that produced three flares. The flares directly influenced the prominence-cavity system. The release of free magnetic energy from the active region by flares resulted in the contraction of the active region field. The cavity, owing to its superior magnetic pressure, expanded to fill this vacated space in the corona. We propose that the tornado developed on the top of the prominence due to the expansion of the prominence-cavity system.

Several scenarios explaining how filaments are formed can be found in literature. In this paper, we analyzed the observations of an active region filament and critically evaluated the observed properties in the context of current filament formation models. This study is based on multi-height spectropolarimetric observations. The inferred vector magnetic field has been extrapolated starting either from the photosphere or from the chromosphere. The line-of-sight motions of the filament, which was located near disk center, have been analyzed inferring the Doppler velocities. We conclude that a part of the magnetic structure emerged from below the photosphere.

We have been operating an infrared Stokes spectro-polarimeter, whose observing wavelength bands include the He i 10830 Å and Fe i 15648 Å lines. A couple of full-Sun, full-Stokes maps in both wavelength bands are taken on a daily basis, with the polarization sensitivity better than 10−3. With this sensitivity, the helium polarization maps clearly show the atomic and Hanlé polarizations besides the Zeeman polarization, particularly in prominences/filaments. On these polarization maps, we can track the magnetic field signals of the prominences/filaments during their passages on the solar disk. Therefore, this instrument works as a ‘synoptic prominence magnetograph’. Our preliminary study of the linear polarizations seen in quiescent filaments suggests that the magnetic field producing the polarization signals is located at the bottom part of a flux-rope, which supports a filament.

We study Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) at the coronal–prominence boundary by means of 2.5D numerical simulations in a single-fluid MHD approach including a generalized Ohm's law. The initial configuration includes a homogeneous magnetic field forming an angle with the direction in which the plasma is perturbed. For each field inclination we compare two simulations, one for the pure MHD case, and one including the ambipolar diffusion in the Ohm's law, otherwise identical. We find that the configuration containing neutral atoms is always unstable. The growth rate of the small-scale modes in the non-linear regime is larger than in the purely MHD case.

A comparison of changes in the structure of the global solar magnetic field and that in the prominence parameters, in solar cycles 21–23, are presented. It is proposed that the observed global magnetic field structure changes and periodicities in the mean solar magnetic field are the result of the excitation of large-scale Rossby waves. The changes in the prominence parameters are assumed to be the result of the global magnetic field structure changes, which may be triggered or modulated quasi-periodically by large-scale Rossby waves.

We present SDO/AIA observations of a potentially novel type of prominence, called “funnel prominence”, that forms out of coronal condensation at magnetic dips.

They can drain a large amount of mass (up to ~1015 g day−1) and may play an important role as return flows of the chromosphere-corona mass cycle.

Due to the complexity of their environment, prominences properties are still a matter of controversy. Prominences cool and dense plasma is suspended in the hot corona by a magnetic structure poorly known. Their thermal insulation from the corona results in a thin geometrical interface called prominence-corona-transition-region (PCTR). Here we will review the main properties of such a region as derived primarily from observations. We will introduce the thermal structure properties, describe the fine structure together with the Doppler-shift and width properties of lines of the emitting plasma. We will introduce the proposed interpretations of such observations and the limits of our knowledge imposed by the present instrumentation. We will conclude with a perspective for the future observations of the PCTR.

A CME is triggered by the disappearance of a stable equilibrium as a result of the slow evolution of the photospheric magnetic field. This disappearance may be due to a loss of ideal-MHD equilibrium or stability as in the kink mode, or to a loss of resistive-MHD equilibrium as a result of magnetic reconnection. We have obtained CMEs in sequence by a time dependent magnetohydrodynamic computation performed on three solar radii. These successive CMEs resulted from a prominence eruption. Velocities of these CMEs decrease in time, from a CME to another. We present observational evidences for large-scale magnetic reconnections that caused the destabilization of a sigmoid filament. These reconnections covered half of the solar disk and produced CMEs in squall (sequential CMEs).

We present observations of a spectacular eruption of a huge quiescent prominence, which was clearly associated with a coronal mass ejection (CME). The CME consisted of a typical three-part structure: a bright loop-like leading edge, a dark cavity and a bright core. The prominence exhibited a very symmetrical loop-like eruption in low corona and matched well with the bright CME core trailing the CME leading edge. By combining the $H_{\alpha}$, 17GHz and EUV observations with white-light coronagraphs observations, the bright CME core was conclusively identified as the erupting cool, dense prominence material.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html