Magneto-thermal convection in solar prominences

Thomas Berger (), Paola Testa, Andrew Hillier, Paul Boerner, Boon Chye Low, Kazunari Shibata, Carolus Schrijver, Ted Tarbell and Alan Title
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Thomas Berger: Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, O/ADBS B/252
Paola Testa: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Andrew Hillier: Kwasan and Hida Observatories, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Paul Boerner: Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, O/ADBS B/252
Boon Chye Low: High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000
Kazunari Shibata: Kwasan and Hida Observatories, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
Carolus Schrijver: Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, O/ADBS B/252
Ted Tarbell: Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, O/ADBS B/252
Alan Title: Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, O/ADBS B/252

Nature, 2011, vol. 472, issue 7342, 197-200

Abstract: Plasma bubbles in the solar corona Recent observations of solar prominences with the optical telescope aboard the Hinode satellite have revealed dark, low-density bubbles that undergo Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities and evolve into dark plumes within coronal cavities — large, low-density regions formed by hemispheric-scale magnetic flux ropes in the outer solar atmosphere. New optical and extreme-ultraviolet data from Hinode and the recently launched NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory show that these prominence cavity structures are heated to temperatures of at least 250,000 K and perhaps as high as 106 K, which is 25–100 times hotter than the overlying prominence. These findings identify a source of buoyancy for these plasma bubbles and point to a previously unrecognized form of magneto-thermal convection in the outer solar atmosphere.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09925

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