Spectroscopy of Solar Prominences Simultaneously from Space and Ground

TL;DR

This paper provides a detailed spectral analysis of solar prominences observed simultaneously from space and ground, revealing pressure uniformity, temperature estimates, optical thickness, and the distribution of cool and hot plasma components.

Contribution

It combines multi-instrument spectral data to analyze prominence structure, temperature, and plasma distribution, offering new insights into prominence composition and dynamics.

Findings

Constant H-beta to Ca II ratio indicates small pressure variations.

Temperature range of 8000-9000 K derived from spectral widths.

Overpopulation of higher Lyman levels suggests non-thermal broadening.

Abstract

We present a comprehensive set of spectral data from two quiescent solar prominences observed in parallel from space and ground: with the VTT, simultaneous two-dimensional imaging of H-beta 4862 and Ca II 8542 yields a constant ratio, indicating small spatial pressure variations over the prominences. With the Gregory, simultaneous spectra of Ca II 8542 and He I 10830 were taken, their widths yielding 8000< T_kin< 9000 K and v_nth<8 km/s. The intensity ratio of the helium triplet components gives an optical thickness of tau < 1.0 for the fainter and tau < 2.0 for the brighter prominence. The tau_0 values allow to deduce the source function for the central line intensities and thus the relative population of the helium 3S and 3P levels with a mean excitation temperature T_ex = 3750 K. With SUMER, we sequentially observed 6 spectral windows containing higher Lyman lines, 'cool' emission lines from neutrals and singly charged atoms, as well as 'hot' emission lines from ions like O IV, O V, N V, S V and S VI. The EUV lines show pronounced maxima in the main prominence body as well as 'side-locations' where the 'hot' lines are enhanced with respect to the 'cool' lines. The line radiance of 'hot' lines blue-wards of the Lyman series limit (lambda<912 A) appear reduced in the main prominence body. This absorption is also visible in TRACE images of Fe IX/X 171 as fine dark structure which covers only parts of the main ('cool') prominence body. The Lyman lines show a smooth decrease of line widths and radiance with increasing upper level k = 5 through 19. For k= 5 through 8 the level population follows a Boltzmann distribution with T_ex >6 *10^4 K; higher levels k > 8 appear more and more overpopulated. The larger widths of the Lyman lines require high non-thermal broadening close to that of 'hot' EUV lines. In contrast, the He II emission is more related to the 'cool' lines.