Bibcode
López Ariste, A.; Aulanier, G.; Schmieder, B.; Sainz Dalda, A.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 456, Issue 2, September III 2006, pp.725-735
Advertised on:
9
2006
Journal
Citations
89
Refereed citations
73
Description
The 3D magnetic field topology of solar filaments/prominences is
strongly debated, because it is not directly measureable in the corona.
Among various prominence models, several are consistent with many
observations, but their related topologies are very different. We
conduct observations to address this paradigm. We measure the
photospheric vector magnetic field in several small flux concentrations
surrounding a filament observed far from disc center. Our objective is
to test for the presence/absence of magnetic dips around/below the
filament body/barb, which is a strong constraint on prominence models,
and that is still untested by observations. Our observations are
performed with the THEMIS/MTR instrument. The four Stokes parameters are
extracted, from which the vector magnetic fields are calculated using a
PCA inversion. The resulting vector fields are then deprojected onto the
photospheric plane. The 180° ambiguity is then solved by selecting
the only solution that matches filament chirality rules. Considering the
weakness of the resulting magnetic fields, a careful analysis of the
inversion procedure and its error bars was performed, to avoid
over-interpretation of noisy or ambiguous Stokes profiles. Thanks to the
simultaneous multi-wavelength THEMIS observations, the vector field maps
are coaligned with the Hα image of the filament. By definition,
photospheric dips are identifiable where the horizontal component of the
magnetic field points from a negative toward a positive polarity. Among
six bipolar regions analyzed in the filament channel, four at least
display photospheric magnetic dips, i.e. bald patches. For barbs, the
topology of the endpoint is that of a bald patch located next to a
parasitic polarity, not of an arcade pointing within the polarity. The
observed magnetic field topology in the photosphere tends to support
models of prominence based on magnetic dips located within weakly
twisted flux tubes. Their underlying and lateral extensions form
photospheric dips both within the channel and below barbs.