Eruptive Prominence and Associated CME Observed with SUMER, CDS, and LASCO

by J.E. Wiik, B. Schmieder, T. Kucera, A.I. Poland, P. Brekke, and G.M. Simnett

• Images
  • Fig.1 (~0.2Mb) The huge prominence observed on May 1 1996 (SE 20-40) as seen in the Ca II K3 line at 07:25 UT (Meudon spectroheliogram, courtesy of Z.Mouradian). CDS (see the box) and SUMER (indicated by crosses in the CDS box) cover mostly the southernmost part of the prominence (to the left).

  • Fig.2 (~0.07Mb) SUMER observations of the prominence on May 1 1996 in the Si IV 1393 Å line (right panels). The prominence is observed between (a) 07:13 and 07:44 UT; (b) 07:45 and 08:16 UT; (c) 08:16 and 08:50 UT, (d) 08:50 and 09:21 UT, (e) 09:22 and 09:55 UT. North is up, and the right corner in the upper panels shows the disk. The dimension of the panels is 135'' x 107''. The CDS image of the prominence is presented in the O V line obtained between 07:07 and 07:58 UT in the upper left panel with the SUMER contour image.

  • Fig.3a (~0.04Mb), Fig.3b (~0.04Mb), Fig.3c (~0.04Mb), Fig.3d (~0.03Mb): Dopplershifts observed in the prominence. The shifts were obtained by using the SUMER spectra in Si IV and O IV lines for the 4 first rasters, respectively observed between (a) 07:12 UT and 07:44 UT, (b) between 07:48 UT and 08:16 UT, (c) between 08:16 UT and 08:50 UT, and (d) between 08:50 UT and 09:21 UT. We notice that the low loop has mixed velocities during the two first times, and later consists of two blue legs. The huge loop is red and blue along its axis, suggesting twisting motion.

  • Fig.4 (~0.1Mb) Example of SUMER spectra of Si IV line through the prominence (horizontal direction) displayed with their individual intensity scale for three raster periods: (a) between 07:12 and 07:44 UT, (b)between 07:48 UT and 08:16 UT, (c) between 08:16 UT and 08:50 UT. The data has been corrected for detector pin-cusion distortion. The arrows indicate the horizontal position where points A, B, C can be observed.

  • Fig.7 (~0.05Mb) CDS observations of the prominences as seen in 6 lines (He I, O III, O IV, O V, Ne VI, and Mg X). The time indicate the mean of the rasters. The prominence is in emission for lines formed at T < 5 10⁵ K (until Ne VI). In Mg X we observe a lack of emission due to absorption of chromospheric continua.

  • Fig.8 (~0.1Mb) Variation with time of the CDS observations of the prominence in two lines: He I 584.33 Å (top panels), and O V 629.73 Å (middle panels). In the bottom panels are the ratios of the two lines. Notice the opening loop. At the inner edge of the loop, O V material is present, indicated by the cross, at 07:33 UT and disappears later. No cool material (He I) is present. The north is up.

  • Fig.9a (~0.03Mb), Fig.9b (~0.03Mb) CDS observations between 07:07 and 07:58 UT for He I (a) and O IV (b) lines. Top panels, intensity; middle panels, Dopplerhift; low panels, line width. The redshifted part corresponds to the SUMER bubble A, the blueshifted one to the SUMER structure B.

  • Fig.13 (~0.1Mb) CME observed by the LASCO C3 coronagraph. There is a bright feature in the CME images at a position angle of 110 degrees. The ejection at this position angle first appears above the 3.4 solar radii occulting disc at 09:32 UT. It brightens and expands outwards, such that by 16:48 UT there is a bright region linking back to the Sun. These images contain the pylon for the occulting disc at a position angle of 135 degrees, which appears as a streak of bright points extending to the edge of the image. The frame at 18:10 UT shows a rarefaction which is moving out ahead of the bright feature.

  • Fig.14 (~0.03Mb) One of the SUMER movie frames. The left panel corresponds to raster (b) in Figure 2 where the solar disk can be seen to the right. The vertical white line illustrates the position of the SUMER slit from where the Si IV exposure shown in the middle panel was extracted (point C in Figure 2). The right panel shows the extraced profile (solid line) representing an average of the area along the slit marked in the two leftmost panels. The dashed line represents the average quiet Sun profile extracted from the upper right part of the raster. The vertical line shows the center of gravity of the quiet Sun profile. In this particular exposure the Si IV line is splitted up in two clearly separated line profiles. The strongest profile is slightly blueshifted,while the weaker component is shifted corresponding to a velocity of 60-70 km/s. When viewing the movie the "slit marker" will move across the raster while the exposure from these slit positions, and the extracted profiles are updated.

• Movies
  • Movie 1 (~0.2Mb): This MPEG movie. made with a sequences of images obtained with the LASCO C3 coronagraph, illustrates the development of the CME associated with the disturbance of the prominence observed by SUMER/CDS. At the top of the frames comet Yakutake is visible during its passage close to the Sun. Figure 13 is a summary of the movie. The six frames show the different phases of the development of the CME. There is a bright feature in the CME images at position angle 110 degrees. The ejection at this position angle first appears above the 3.4 solar radii occulting disc at 09:32 UT. It brightens and expands outwards, such that by 16:48 UT there is a bright region linking back to the Sun. These images contain the pylon for the occulting disc at a position angle of 135 degrees, which appears as a streak of bright points extending to the edge of the image. The frame at 18:10 UT shows a rarefaction which is moving out ahead of the bright feature.

  • Movie 2: SUMER raster in Si IV. One of the movie frames is shown in Figure 14. The left panel corresponds to raster (b) in Figure 2 where the solar disk can be seen to the right. The vertical white line illustrates the position of the SUMER slit from where the Si IV exposure shown in the middle panel was extracted (point C in Figure 2b and 4). The right panel shows the extraced profile (solid line) representing an average of the area along the slit marked in the two leftmost panels. The dashed line represents the average quiet Sun profile extracted from the upper right part of the raster. The vertical line shows the center of gravity of the quiet Sun profile.
    • MPEG movie (~0.6Mb)
    • IDL Save File (binary file, ~10Mb) (cf. instructions on viewing)