Bibcode
Orozco Suárez, D.; Díaz, A. J.; Asensio Ramos, A.; Trujillo Bueno, J.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 785, Issue 1, article id. L10, 6 pp. (2014).
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4
2014
Citations
13
Refereed citations
11
Description
We present high-spatial resolution spectropolarimetric observations of a
quiescent hedgerow prominence taken in the He I 1083.0 nm triplet. The
observation consisted of a time series in sit-and-stare mode of ~36
minutes duration. The spectrograph's slit crossed the prominence body
and we recorded the time evolution of individual vertical threads.
Eventually, we observed the development of a dark Rayleigh-Taylor plume
that propagated upward with a velocity, projected onto the plane of the
sky, of 17 km s–1. Interestingly, the plume apex
collided with the prominence threads pushing them aside. We inferred
Doppler shifts, Doppler widths, and magnetic field strength variations
by interpreting the He I Stokes profiles with the HAZEL code. The
Doppler shifts show that clusters of threads move coherently while
individual threads have oscillatory patterns. Regarding the plume we
found strong redshifts (~9-12 km s–1) and large Doppler
widths (~10 km s–1) at the plume apex when it passed
through the prominence body and before it disintegrated. We associate
the redshifts with perspective effects while the Doppler widths are more
likely due to an increase in the local temperature. No local variations
of the magnetic field strength associated with the passage of the plume
were found; this leads us to conclude that the plumes are no more
magnetized than the surroundings. Finally, we found that some of the
threads' oscillations are locally damped, what allowed us to apply
prominence seismology techniques to infer additional prominence physical
parameters.
Related projects
Magnetism, Polarization and Radiative Transfer in Astrophysics
Magnetic fields pervade all astrophysical plasmas and govern most of the variability in the Universe at intermediate time scales. They are present in stars across the whole Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, in galaxies, and even perhaps in the intergalactic medium. Polarized light provides the most reliable source of information at our disposal for the
Tanausú del
Pino Alemán