Prominence observations with ALMA

Heinzel, P.; Bárta, M.; Gunár, S.; Labrosse, Nicolas; Vial, J. C.

doi:10.3389/fspas.2022.983707

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The first radio observations of sources associated with solar prominences were made with the Australian Culgoora Radioheliograph (Mc-Lean and Labrum, 1985). Recent results are provided by the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array (ALMA) (Wedemeyer et al, 2016), which offers an unprecedented spatial resolution in the radio domain for studies of extended sources in the solar atmosphere, including prominences (Heinzel et al, 2022a). It A unique observation of an erupting prominence was obtained by Harrison et al (1993) as the 11 July 1991 eclipse path crossed the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawai'i.…”

Section: Prominences Observed With Radio Antennaementioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Prominences in the History of Solar Physics

Engvold,

Vial

2024

J. Astron. Hist. Herit.

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The very outer solar atmosphere (corona) is very hot with temperatures over a million degrees K, while the photosphere is of the order of 5000 K. Embedded in this hot outer corona are cool, ≤10,000 K, magnetic structures called solar prominences. As seen on the disk, they are long filamentary structures while on the solar limb they look like intricate loops. In this paper, we present the development of our understanding of solar prominences, which have played a central role in the development of solar science. Solar prominences were first observed during the few minute episodes of total eclipses. The introduction of spectroscopy allowed continuous observations, which also led to information on temperatures, temporal variations and dynamics of the associated plasma. The discovery of strong magnetic fields in sunspots provided a breakthrough in our understanding of the physics of the Sun. Weaker magnetic fields formed both the large and small-scale structures of prominences, their time-variable shapes, and explained why they could remain floating high above the solar surface in the less dense corona. Appearing as dark, thin, elongated filaments against a brighter solar disk, they provided further information through their interaction with and dependence on how magnetic fields are distributed on the solar surface, in the chromosphere and corona. Access to X-ray and short-wavelength ultraviolet radiation in prominences from spacecraft revealed large ranges of temperature in thin layers between the 10,000-degree prominence cores and the surrounding million-degree corona. The advent of increasingly more powerful computers has led to advanced modelling of prominence plasma based on radiative transfer and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) calculations. Theoretical and observational progress has opened up new possible formation mechanisms. The spectacular eruptions of solar prominences have led to a considerable amount of observational and theoretical work on possibly similar events on other stars, which could affect the existence of life on their orbiting planets.

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Section: Prominences Observed With Radio Antennaementioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Prominences in the History of Solar Physics

Engvold,

Vial

2024

J. Astron. Hist. Herit.

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“…This is because ALMA has not achieved yet its full potential for solar observations and offers only more compact antenna configurations for solar targets. For more details on the actual and simulated observations of prominences and the predictions of the visibility of prominence fine structures, see the review by Heinzel et al (2022b) in this special issue.…”

Section: Solar Prominencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects and challenges of numerical modeling of the Sun at millimeter wavelengths

Wedemeyer

Fleishman

Rodríguez

et al. 2022

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) offers new diagnostic possibilities that complement other commonly used diagnostics for the study of the Sun. In particular, ALMA’s ability to serve as an essentially linear thermometer of the chromospheric gas at unprecedented spatial resolution at millimeter wavelengths and future polarization measurements has great diagnostic potential. Solar ALMA observations are therefore expected to contribute significantly to answering long-standing questions about the structure, dynamics, and energy balance of the outer layers of the solar atmosphere. In this regard, current and future ALMA data are also important for constraining and further developing numerical models of the solar atmosphere, which in turn are often vital for the interpretation of observations. The latter is particularly important given the Sun’s highly intermittent and dynamic nature that involves a plethora of processes occurring over extended ranges in spatial and temporal scales. Realistic forward modeling of the Sun therefore requires time-dependent three-dimensional radiation magnetohydrodynamics that account for non-equilibrium effects and, typically as a separate step, detailed radiative transfer calculations, resulting in synthetic observables that can be compared to observations. Such artificial observations sometimes also account for instrumental and seeing effects, which, in addition to aiding the interpretation of observations, provide instructive tools for designing and optimizing ALMA’s solar observing modes. In the other direction, ALMA data in combination with other simultaneous observations enable the reconstruction of the solar atmospheric structure via data inversion techniques. This article highlights central aspects of the impact of ALMA for numerical modeling of the Sun and their potential and challenges, together with selected examples.

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