Tornado-Like Evolution of A Kink-Unstable Solar Prominence

TL;DR

This paper describes the tornado-like evolution of a solar prominence, linking its dynamics to magnetic instabilities and reconnections, and providing detailed observations of its complex structure and behavior.

Contribution

It presents detailed observational evidence of a prominence's tornado-like evolution and proposes magnetic kink instability and reconnection as underlying mechanisms.

Findings

The prominence exhibited a tornado-like evolution with helical disintegration.

Formation of a curtain-like structure involved magnetic reconnections.

Stereoscopic reconstruction confirmed the helical path of material flow.

Abstract

We report on the tornado-like evolution of a quiescent prominence on 2014 November 1. The eastern section of the prominence first rose slowly transforming into an arch-shaped structure as high as ~150 Mm above the limb; the arch then writhed moderately in a left-handed sense, while the originally dark prominence material became in emission in the Fe IX 171~{\AA} passband, and a braided structure appeared at the eastern edge of the warped arch. The unraveling of the braided structure was associated with a transient brightening in EUV and apparently contributed to the formation of a curtain-like structure (CLS). The CLS consisted of myriads of thread-like loops rotating counterclockwise about the vertical if viewed from above. Heated prominence material was observed to slide along these loops and land outside the filament channel. The tornado was eventually disintegrated and the remaining material flew along a left-handed helical path of approximately a full turn, as corroborated through stereoscopic reconstruction, into the cavity of the stable, western section of the prominence. We suggest that the tornado-like evolution of the prominence was governed by the helical kink instability, and that the CLS formed through magnetic reconnections between the prominence field and the overlying coronal field.