Observation and Simulation of Longitudinal Oscillations of an Active Region Prominence

TL;DR

This study combines high-resolution observations and hydrodynamic simulations to analyze the longitudinal oscillations of a solar prominence, suggesting gravity as the restoring force and exploring implications for prominence eruptions and CMEs.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed observation of magnetic dips in prominence threads and models the oscillations, highlighting gravity as the restoring force and analyzing decay mechanisms.

Findings

Oscillation period of 52 minutes observed

Decay timescale of 133 minutes measured

Hydrodynamic model reproduces the oscillation period

Abstract

Filament longitudinal oscillations have been observed on the solar disk in H$\alpha$. We intend to find an example of the longitudinal oscillations of a prominence, where the magnetic dip can be seen directly, and examine what is the restoring force of such kind of oscillations. We carry out a multiwavelength data analysis of the active region prominence oscillations above the western limb on 2007 February 8. Besides, we perform a one-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation of the longitudinal oscillations. The high-resolution observations by Hinode/SOT indicate that the prominence, seen as a concave-inward shape in lower-resolution Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) images, actually consists of many concave-outward threads, which is indicative of the existence of magnetic dips. After being injected into the dip region, a bulk of prominence material started to oscillate for more than 3.5 hours, with the period being 52 min. The oscillation decayed with time, with the decay timescale being 133 min. Our hydrodynamic simulation can well reproduce the oscillation period, but the damping timescale in the simulation is 1.5 times as long as the observations. The results clearly show the prominence longitudinal oscillations around the dip of the prominence and our study suggests that the restoring force of the longitudinal oscillations might be the gravity. Radiation and heat conduction are insufficient to explain the decay of the oscillations. Other mechanisms, such as wave leakage and mass accretion, have to be considered. The possible relation between the longitudinal oscillations and the later eruption of a prominence thread, as well as a coronal mass ejection (CME), is also discussed.