Dept. of Geosciences Colloquium: Oscillations, flows, and Instabilities in Solar Prominences

Abstract:

Solar prominences are magnetically supported ‘clouds’ of cool material in the hot solar corona and can play an important role in solar eruptions by suppling the bulk of the mass to coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Large scale oscillations and flows in solar prominences and related filament structures were observed since early days of solar astronomy in H alpha emission, useful for diagnostic of prominence properties. However, only recently, since the launch of NASA SDO, RHESSI, and the Japanese Hinode satellites, small scale oscillations and other features are observed routinely in unprecedented details. The high-resolution observations provide evidence of fluid instabilities such as Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor, and the spectroscopic information provides evidence of Doppler shifts, heating, and cooling of the prominence material. I will review recent solar prominences satellite observations, focusing on waves and instabilities, discuss recent magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modeling of these phenomena, and review the present state of understanding of solar prominences dynamics.

Event Organizers: Dr. Roy Barkan and Dr. Asaf Inbal