Mass of prominences experiencing failed eruptions

TL;DR

This study estimates the masses of solar prominences with failed eruptions using magnetic field models, revealing a wide mass distribution that aligns with previous spectroscopic and white-light measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate prominence masses via magnetic field extrapolation, providing new data on mass distribution in failed eruptive filaments.

Findings

Masses range from 4×10^15 to 270×10^16 grams.

Most filament masses are consistent with earlier estimates.

Mass distribution is wide, indicating diverse prominence properties.

Abstract

A number of solar filaments/prominences demonstrate failed eruptions, when a filament at first suddenly starts to ascend and then decelerates and stops at some greater height in the corona. The mechanism of the termination of eruptions is not clear yet. One of the confining forces able to stop the eruption is the gravity force. Using a simple model of a partial current-carrying torus loop anchored to the photosphere and photospheric magnetic field measurements as the boundary condition for the potential magnetic field extrapolation into the corona, we estimated masses of 15 eruptive filaments. The values of the filament mass show rather wide distribution in the range of $4\times10^{15}$ -- $270\times10^{16}$g. Masses of the most of filaments, laying in the middle of the range, are in accordance with estimations made earlier on the basis of spectroscopic and white-light observations.