HR: 08:40h
AN: SH41A-03 INVITED     [PDF]
TI: The Magnetic Fields of Quiescent Prominences
AU: * Low, B
EM: LOW@HAO.UCAR.EDU
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307 United States
AB: Since the discovery of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the 1970s, we have known that they have a high association ($>70%$) with prominence eruptions. This association is also reflected by the many three-part CMEs having the associated erupted prominence as the dense core trailing behind the leading dense shell of the CME. The magnetic fields in a quiescent prominence are thus an important observable clue to the hydromagnetic environment capable of producing a CME. This was not appreciated in the observational efforts in the 1970s and 1980s to detect prominence magnetic fields by spectro-polarimetric methods, largely because it was a discovery phase of this observational development. The current renewed efforts to observe magnetic fields both in prominences and in the million-degree corona will offer an unprecedented opportunity to probe the coronal origin of CMEs. This talk will center upon certain interesting prominence and related properties useful to keep in mind in anticipation of that opportunity. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
DE: 7513 Coronal mass ejections
DE: 7524 Magnetic fields
SC: SPA - Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting